


My fair Model

by sky_fish



Category: Arashi (Band), Japanese Actor RPF, Johnny's Entertainment
Genre: Alternate Universe - Photographer, Competition, Drama, M/M, Modeling, Photo Shoots, Photography, Romance, Slice of Life, Strangers to Lovers, quirky behaviour
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-28
Updated: 2017-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:14:54
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 56,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26757112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sky_fish/pseuds/sky_fish
Summary: Jun and Nino are friends, but more than that - rivals. When their boss, owner of a prestige photo studio, is about to choose his successor, the two of them have to compete for the position. To make things even more difficult for Nino, Jun boldly suggests a bet according to which they have to pimp up a random stranger to become their perfect photo model. Suddenly, shy office worker Sho finds himself in the middle of this competition, his life turned upside down.
Relationships: Aiba Masaki/Matsumoto Jun, Ninomiya Kazunari/Sakurai Sho
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1

To create a good photograph, several things are needed. Of course, a camera. The correct setting. The correct lighting. Someone in front of the camera and someone behind the camera. Then, when it comes to the latter, talent. Seeing the right view, catching the right angle, shooting at the right timing, getting the best out of the model. Handling all of those things in order to create the best photograph possible, that is the job of a photographer.

Takizawa Hideaki, nicknamed "Tacky", photographer and owner of one of Tokyo's most prestige photo studios, the Blue Hour, was a man who was able to perform this job perfectly. His pictures looked gorgeous but that wasn't the only reason for his popularity. On top of his skills, his clients loved him for his friendliness and cheerfulness and almost every client would come back to the studio once they got to know him. This convinced Tacky that his way of handling things couldn't be so bad, and so he always gave his best to convey his ideals and morals about his beloved job to his apprentices and co-workers.

In most cases, he succeeded. Sometimes, not so much. Therefore, it wasn't too surprising that for some of his recent employees, even though he gave his best to educate them, and even though they all owned exceptional talent, there was something missing in them. Something essential to become a long-lasting, successful professional photographer who would make his clients happy, which was the biggest goal of Tacky's business idea.

Maybe, the problem was youth, Tacky thought. Youth and inexperience. But then, to be honest, all of his current employees - except the very fresh apprentice, who came straight to the studio after finishing school - have passed the big 3 already. They were in business for years and were doing a good job; hence, inexperience couldn't be it. Probably, the problems were the flaws of the individual characters. Not that flaws were something bad in general, according to Tacky they gave people their distinct personalities and made them special, unique. But when it came to this profession, he was first and foremost just that – a true professional, and he expected the same of his photographers.

"Good morning, Boss!" a loud voice chimed, joyfully as always, as the first employee stepped (read: barged) into the studio this morning, Aiba Masaki.

"Good morning, Aiba-chan!" Tacky replied with a wide smile. "Ready for today?"

"Sure thing, Boss, always at your service!" the cheerful, brown-haired man answered with his trademark smile, making a salute towards his superior who couldn't help but chuckle joyfully. That was the right enthusiasm!

Tacky winked at Aiba, who tried – and failed – to mirror the gesture, and gave him a thumbs-up before he vanished into a separated small room – his private office.

When Tacky was talking about his photographers, he wasn't talking about Aiba. The fact is, Aiba didn't take photographs. His job was as one of the stylists. He took care of the appearance of the people that would be photographed by the team, no matter if it was for a family portrait, a passport picture, a picture for job applications or any sort of special shootings that the studio offered. Aiba's mission was to make those people look the best they can. He would help them fix their hair, straighten their clothes, maybe even enhance their make-up a little and allowing the lightning in the studio to make them shine.

When it came to Aiba, he had the talent of getting out the best from each model, not only with his styling skills and design tips but also with his cheerful and friendly personality that simply spread over to the clients. His smile, radiating as brightly as the sun, was addictive as well as infectious and everyone around him became comfortable within seconds. But he wasn't the one shooting. For this there were other people in the studio.

"Masaki, you forgot your cell phone in the car again!" another voice could be heard, as the front door of the studio was pulled open again. "And why are you in such a hurry, did you fly up here from the garage?! I just turned to the back seat for a second and you were gone! I should prohibit you from drinking espresso in the morning, seriously..."

A bunch of dark brown curls pushed its way into the back area of the studio, consisting of a couple of desks, a small dressing area and a bookshelf filled with photo books and study material about photography as well as Tacky's separate office. The owner of the enviable hair dress was Matsumoto Jun, one of Tacky's first-class photographers. Jun used to be a bit grumpy in the mornings, at least until his second coffee here at work and Aiba's energy level was surely not always easy to deal with, Tacky thought, but the two did just fine.

However, even with his life spirits returned, it didn't mean that Jun was able to do a perfect job. Instead, he was a little complicated. Completely fine in handling some clients, especially young females who seemed to fall for him in seconds – although he wasn't interested at all – he was also known to be feared by children. Thus, the shootings with the youngest clients of the studio were usually passed to someone else. Due to his serious attitude and a general impatience, some of the clients have even filed complains about him being too strict and impatient when giving orders about posing.

"Sorry, Jun-chan, and thank you!" Aiba smiled at the other man and took the phone from him before he leaned forward a bit to peck Jun's cheek quickly, causing him to blush.

"Keep that for when you are home, please, Aiba-san...," a low voice behind them complained.

Jun whirled around, not only embarrassed but also because he didn't hear the other coming at all and the appearance of his colleague caught him by surprise. Again. Aiba just arched an indifferent eyebrow at their colleague, Kato Shigeaki, another photographer here at the Blue Hour.

"Don’t be a prude, Shige-chan!" Aiba pouted cutely, addressing his colleague with his nickname, and Shige rolled his eyes.

"I'm no prude, but this is our workplace so please keep your private stuff at home. Thanks," Shige murmured, turning away and leaving the place almost as unnoticed as he entered it.

To be honest, Shige was known for being a bit weird. Well, OK, not only a bit. He was more like a ghost than a human being, with his pale skin, walking so silently that people never heard him approaching and his slightly curled, pitch-black hair hanging low over his forehead. All in all, his appearance reminded others of one of those creatures from typical Japanese horror movies. He didn't talk much, but when things were against his morals, he would speak up. Other from that, he was a mystery. He was used to keeping work and private life separated from each other. Not even Aiba knew about his private life and Aiba could be very sneaky when he wanted. The only thing obvious was that Shige expected other people to keep their private stuff for themselves as well. Strict, Aiba used to call him.

Working with Shige was almost impossible for most clients, but that was OK. Shige was Tacky's nephew and more of a freelancer collaborating with his uncle's studio at times, than an employee. He didn't do regular photo shootings but chose to focus on his own work, which mostly included artistic shootings either for photo books, specific photo series in magazines or even contributions for art galleries. He did his thing and the studio employees did their thing and somehow, it worked.

It didn't take long until Kitagawa Keiko, another photographer, and Hirose Suzu, the studio's apprentice arrived at work too, chatting about girls stuff behind their hands, giggling. Keiko was talking about her weekend with her boyfriend, making Suzu blush a little. The latter was a shy girl and was still only dreaming about romantic encounters. Aiba greeted the two of them joyfully, patting Suzu's head in a brotherly gesture and complimenting Keiko for her beautiful make-up. The women smiled broadly at the stylist and took their places to put away their stuff and receive their assignments for today, which the owner of the studio had laid out on each staff member's places in the morning. Five minutes later, said owner exited his private office again and appeared in front of his employees.

"Good morning, everybody," Tacky greeted friendlily, earning friendly greetings in return. "Where is Nino?" he asked, scanning the place.

"Late, as always," Jun stated the obvious, straightening his hair a little bit and finally his second coffee in his hand – prepared by Aiba with "lots of love" - which slowly but surely made him look a little more like a human being.

"As soon as he shows up, grab him and pull him into my office. I want to see all of you there within half an hour! I have an announcement to make," the owner said, earning confused glances from his team.

"Roger, Boss!" Aiba answered immediately, saluting.

Jun couldn't help but throw Tacky a frowning look. "Takizawa-san?!"

But the other had vanished again, after calling out for Shige to tell him that he had to attend the meeting too, even if he didn't want to, and so Jun was left behind wondering for himself.

"What announcement?" he whispered to his boyfriend.

Aiba shrugged and leaned towards Jun again, placing another kiss on his cheek.

\- + -

Nino, full name Ninomiya Kazunari, the missing team member of the Blue Hour wasn't far from his working place when Tacky was telling the others that he would need the attention of the full team for his announcement. Not having the slightest idea yet how this day was going to change his job – no, his whole life – Nino had just exited the subway station nearby.

Despite being late, he was not really in a hurry. Watering the plants in his apartment and on his balcony had taken him a bit longer than expected, he would admit that to his boss when he was asked. Then, Tacky would just hum understandingly and beg Nino to water the plants in the studio too, which Nino would do anyway. It was as simple as that and even if Jun would still scold him on Tacky's behalf for coming in late, Nino had learned to ignore it, knowing that Jun's concerns were based more on a mocking rivalry than true fear of Nino losing his job.

When Nino entered the skyscraper housing his workplace, he immediately walked to the elevators in the middle of the entrance hall, approaching the fourth elevator on the right side. He waited for it to arrive, even if the one beside him opened its door earlier. Nino just watched a couple of office workers stepping inside and taking off again.

"Go-good morning," he then heard the low voice of another salaryman, who must be working in the same building too, behind him.

Nino never had seen him before, or never paid attention to him, but he wasn't exactly someone who exchanged greetings with strangers. He nodded slightly though when the elevator arrived, his look fixated on the metallic buttons indicating the respective floors as the man stepped into the elevator behind him. He pressed the button next to a small plate, showing the name of the photo studio Blue Hour and the one for the fourteenth floor when the man behind him politely asked him to do that for him.

"Uhm... busy day ahead?" the man asked, obviously trying to make some small talk despite sounding shy, but Nino just frowned and muted the man's efforts with a hum before deciding to ignore it.

They didn't exchange any further conversation during their ride up, even if the salaryman might have wanted to chat with Nino, according to the hesitant look on his face that Nino could see through the reflection off the wall of the elevator. The man was just a bit taller than he was, probably around his age, but his shy look made him look inexperienced. His dark brown hair, parted slightly on left and the thick-framed glasses topping the bridge of his nose, made him look like a swot. The grey striped suit gave him the appearance of a shy mouse, ready to disappear into the crowd with each possible meeting he might have with his colleagues in his office.

Compared to the salaryman, Nino's outfit looked like he was going out for clubbing or attending a rock concert. He was wearing a big sized white T-shirt, showing some, according to Aiba, "super cool" artistic black print – his last birthday present from his friend –; tight, worn indigo jeans slit open at his knees and a pair of black sneakers. On top of all of that, a black leather jacket, probably Nino's most expensive piece of clothing, and his hairstyle was… well, anything but a hairstyle, considering that he didn't even bother to comb his hair after waking up.

There were worlds between him and that salaryman in the vague reflection of the elevator, Nino concluded. He readjusted the strap of his camera bag and averted his look, feeling annoyed and wondering what a salaryman would want to talk to him about, and instead tapped his foot slightly to the rhythm of the soft music playing in the background of the elevator.

"Thanks for your hard work, have a nice day," Nino then muttered, bowing his head slightly as the elevator came to a halt and the doors slid open to let him out on the eighth floor.

"Oh, uhm… thank you very much! Same to you," the salaryman behind him mumbled sheepishly, pulling Nino out of his daydreaming.

"I was talking to Eliyah," Nino replied, throwing a nonchalant look at the man behind him when he stepped out of the elevator.

Nino sighed at the puzzled look adorning the slightly blushing face of the man, before dismissing any further thoughts about him. He was used to those confused looks. Of course, people misunderstood and didn't get it, but Nino didn't care. He didn't expect. Because people were stupid and found it hard to deal with his quirks. At least most of them. People were strange. He didn't exclude himself. But other people didn't understand him, and he had to admit, mostly, he didn't understand them either. He just did not seem to be good with people.

Thankfully, he had at least gotten used to the people at work, all of them being a little quirky, each on their own. The little voice in Nino's head used to tell him that this might be the exact reason why he had grown to feel comfortable among them over the past few years. At least Nino now had a handful of people that he even dared to call friends if he was in a good mood, something that was pretty rare in his life.

"Good morning," Nino said when he passed the threshold of the Blue Hour.

There was no one at the counter yet or rearranging products to be sold in the front of the studio, but Nino was sure, that his colleagues were there already, probably cleaning their camera's lenses, reading their assignments or working with the image editing software on the computers.

He heard a yelled reply from the back room, Keiko, and when he made his first way into the small kitchen at the back to fetch a cup of coffee, he nodded his head to the apprentice Suzu who smiled at him and wished him a good morning too before she filled a glass with water and vanished. While he was waiting for his coffee to cool down, Nino reached his hand to the small pot containing a peppermint plant standing on the window sill with the view outside. He slightly rubbed one of the leaves between his fingers and smelled them.

"You smell nice today," Nino murmured, enjoying the fresh scent. He then poured a little water into the pot and placed it back before focusing on his coffee, tasting it. "Ugh…," Nino cringed slightly, pursing his lips after taking the first sip of his coffee. "You had better days, I'm disappointed," he murmured before letting out a sigh. "Maybe try a bit better after lunch?"

"Nino, you're late!" Aiba chirped to greet his colleague and supposed best friend, ruffling through the mob of black hair to tousle it even more, before putting his hands on Nino's shoulders and starting to guide him towards Tacky's private office.

"Hey, don't push me, Aiba!" Nino grumbled. "What are you doing?"

"Boss wants to see us. All of us," the other man explained. "He said he has to tell us something important."

That made Nino frown and speed up his steps a little, automatically.

"Good to see you all," Tacky addressed his team with a big smile a minute later, as soon as everyone had gathered in the small office. "Today, I have an important announcement to make."

Nino paid closer attention to his boss, trying to figure if something was different if something was wrong. Was it one time too often that he showed up late for work, would he be fired now? Did he miss someone's birthday? Did the business go bankrupt? No, impossible, Nino told himself. The business was booming, they had full schedules every day, even shootings on the weekend at gatherings, weddings, company parties, they were doing fine, more than fine. But what else could their boss want to announce?

Looking around, Nino quickly understood that he wasn't the only one wondering and kept in the dark. Suzu, clasping her glass of water, looked a bit lost, maybe even scared. Aiba's eyes were filled with curiosity and both, Keiko as well as Jun, looked somewhat nervous. Only Shige was about to space out again and not paying attention at all which was fine because usually nothing that Tacky had to say to his team was of the artist's concern; rather it was a formality of not excluding the man, Nino used to think.

"Do I have to be scared?" he asked, ruining the possibly volitional dramatic pause.

Their boss chuckled. "No, no, nobody has to be scared, I'm not going to fire anybody, and business is doing well, just in case you're worried about something like that," the man then replied, waving his hand.

Nino felt his slightly stiff shoulders loosen up a bit as he breathed out in relief and when he spotted Jun across the room, having the same reaction, the two locked eyes for a moment. While Jun was throwing a challenging look at Nino, the other simply rolled his eyes. Aiba laughed out loud before he nudged Jun's side with his elbow and said something like "I told you, no need to worry." Still, Nino was critical, guiding his look back to his boss.

Tacky looked around to make sure he had everybody's attention again. "I'm here today to let you all know that I do have plans to leave the Blue Hour," he said in an earnest tone and after that, there was sheer silence that was only disturbed by Shige taking a sip from his coffee.

Nino threw Shige a displeased look for his incredible timing, even if he knew the other wouldn't give a shit. He then whirled around to his boss again, continuing to stare at him. He was just about to part his lips in question when Jun spoke up first.

"What do you mean by leaving the Blue Hour?!" the young man asked, his voice slightly trembling. At least, Jun was as confused as Nino.

"Just what I said. I'm going to leave this studio," Tacky continued, his voice now sounding much more casual.

"But why?!" Keiko asked, taking a step forward.

"I don't want that to happen, Boss!" Nino could hear Aiba's whining voice and when he looked across the room to his friend, he could see Aiba's lips trembling slightly, and his eyes getting watery.

Nino frowned back to Tacky as the owner of the studio cleared his throat before he finally started to explain. "My best friend and I want to take up the challenge of opening up a branch of this studio in New York," he said, smiling proudly. "In fact, we're planning this for years, but circumstances made us wait until now to fulfil this dream. However, now is the best time to go and so I will go."

"And what will happen to the Blue Hour then?" Keiko asked, her voice taking a slightly panicked tone. "How can you first tell us that nobody will get fired and business is doing fine and then you tell us you're ditching us for a studio in New York?!"

Jun joined her, nodding heavily, while Aiba continued to sob silently at the thought of having to part with his boss. When Nino looked at Suzu who was standing behind him, he could see the pure shock on the young girl's face, the knuckles of her fingers clenching the glass of water turned white, and for a moment he feared that the glass was going to burst. He could understand his colleagues’ reactions, though. He himself couldn't believe what he just heard either. But just when he was about to speak up, his boss lifted his hands in defence, making his employees listen with just that gesture.

"You do not have to worry," Tacky said with an encouraging smile on his face. "The studio here will remain open, of course. I will remain the owner of the Blue Hour, I will just… not be here."

"And what are we supposed to do without you, Boss?!" Aiba sobbed, louder this time, before blowing his nose with a tissue Keiko handed him. "Don't go, Boss, please, don't go!"

"Masaki, calm down," Jun said in a low voice, rubbing his boyfriend's back gently, helping him to take a seat.

Nino felt a stitch in his heart, seeing his best friend crying like this – it wasn't unusual but Nino was surprisingly weak to tears, he had to admit – so now it was his time to speak up.

"So what does this mean for us?" he asked, crossing his arms and shooting his boss a critical look.

"Not much will change, I suppose. The pool of clients will stay the same, so does our business philosophy. But…," Tacky let his look wander over each of his team's members before a mischievous smirk adorned his face. "One of you will become the new boss of our Japan branch here."

"One of us will become the new boss?!" Jun repeated, eyes widened.

Nino frowned. A new boss… among them, he thought, that could only mean Jun or Keiko would be promoted, right? Bearing in mind that Suzu was still an apprentice, Aiba wasn't a photographer but a stylist and Shige was… well, Shige, that could be the only possible choice. He himself, no, he wasn't the boss-type, Nino knew it, he wasn't social enough, he didn't care enough about the organisation, he wouldn't like to take over responsibility for employees. Then, for a moment, Nino's heart sank into his stomach. As much as he appreciated his colleagues, the mere thought of the possibility of Jun becoming his superior and bossing him around made him feel sour.

"So let me make this announcement too now," the owner of the photo studio continued, ignoring the whisper that had broken out among Jun, Keiko and Aiba. "Of course, it cannot be our cute Suzu-chan, as much as we love her," he started, smiling at her, "Since you're still in the middle of learning, even if I have high hopes in you so please continue giving your best!"

"I - I will, thanks, Tacky-san," Suzu blushed slightly, nodding gratefully, earning a confirming nod by her boss in return.

"I'm sorry, but Aiba-chan is also out of the question since he's not a photographer, although I'm sure he would be the funniest boss ever," he joked with another wink towards Aiba.

"I would be a horrible boss," Aiba giggled and when Nino looked at him, the tears from before already seemed dried. Once more he was amazed by Aiba's ability to switch moods in high speed, but he was relieved.

"True," Jun chuckled, poking the man sitting on the chair beside him lovingly. "Free breakfast, higher salary and more paid leave for everyone and after six months the business would be dead." He kissed Aiba's cheek to make up for his joke.

Everyone laughed, but Nino. He still felt unease about this whole situation and not at all in the mood for joking. His arms still crossed defensively, he darted his look back to his boss who was smiling casually, as if they were all having the best time of their lives right now.

"Shige is his own boss anyway," a wave by Tacky in his nephew's direction and a collective nodding at that statement. So far, the announcement was following Nino's train of thoughts exactly. "And Keiko-chan, I really appreciate your talent but compared to my other team members, you lack the experience, being a career changer and part of us only for one and a half year."

Nino frowned when Keiko nodded in understanding. True, he forgot that the woman was fairly new to this business, her skills were contrary to the facts. Damned, he was about to roll his eyes, at this account, it would really mean that Jun would become their new boss and he would surely proclaim his victory over his rival and make use of his higher position to indulge in one of his favourite hobbies - teasing Nino – as if there was no tomorrow… Nice future prospects.

"This leaves me with my two longest and most loyal employees, my dear Jun-kun and Nino who both joined my studio more than 10 years ago and well, more or less, gave their best at work since then every day," Tacky continued, his look now wandering from Jun to Nino and back again.

Nino imitated him, letting his eyes jump between his boss and his colleague. He could hear a whisper coming from the other side of the room, Keiko was surely already congratulating Jun for his new position. Aiba was looking at his boyfriend now with shining eyes, grabbing his hand and pressing it slightly. Shige took another disinterested slurp from his coffee, looking as spaced out as it was humanly possible. For a moment, Nino wondered, where the man's thoughts might be at this moment…

Pulling his eyes from the distraction, Nino tried to focus on Tacky again. This wasn't really a matter of question, was it? Then, why did it sound like his boss wanted to make it thrilling?

"In fact, I haven't decided yet which of you two is more suited for the position," their boss finally said, clapping his hands together and Nino felt his earnest expression slip, replaced by sincere surprise.

"What?!" Keiko let out before clasping her hands in front of her lips.

She exchanged a short look with Nino as if she wanted to apologise for not considering him as a potential candidate for her new boss, but Nino just slightly shook his head, showing her that they were on the same page regarding the matter.

"With all my respect, Takizawa-san," Jun spoke up, looking at his boss with a determined face. "Nino isn't a boss!" he claimed without further ado. "Wouldn't I be the logical choice following your arguments?"

Ouch. Nino cringed slightly. Not that he wasn't of that opinion, but hearing it straight out from his friend/sort-of-rival was… well, not so pleasant.

"Nino?" Tacky arched an eyebrow at him, challenging him to defend himself against Jun's accusation.

Nino just shrugged, arms still crossed. "He's right, I guess…"

Surprisingly, Tacky let out a huge sigh, leaning back against his desk and letting his head drop in his neck. He then snapped forward again, looking at the two men, strictly. "And that is why I can't decide on which of you I should give the promotion."

Jun and Nino exchanged a questioning look, and Nino was relieved to find the other man still as confused as he was.

"You!" Tacky then yelled, pointing at Jun who startled a little, "You're pretty full of yourself, aren't you? Which isn't exactly a bad thing, you need confidence for this job and you have lots of it, but sometimes, a bit of modesty is more important. And you -," he continued, pointing at Nino. "You're giving up much too fast. That's why you slack off, as a person and as a professional photographer! You're not interested in the client's demands, you're playing your standard program and that's sufficient mostly because you're skilled enough, but you only get passionate when you can take pictures of what interests you. Your pictures at work though, are mere good average!"

That was another ouch to Nino's (little) pride, even if he knew exactly that his boss had hit the nail on the head. Compared to his daily job of taking pictures of families, couples, taking pictures for job applications and other "standard stuff" as he called it, his true passion was taking photographs of objects, sometimes of beautiful landscapes or impressive buildings. Everything that didn't include living or moving objects. Things were so much easier to handle than people, Nino used to think, and his preference in this undoubtedly showed in his choice of private pictures he'd take.

However, his boss wasn't finished yet and so the rambling kept on, unadorned and brutally honest.

"You both lack social skills with your photo models," he lifted his hand before Jun could say anything. "Jun-kun, no, fake flirting with girls doesn't count as the social skill I'm searching for here. At least, Nino doesn't make children cry during photo shootings!"

"Hah!" Nino threw at Jun, even if he wasn't sure if he should really be proud of this statement, considering that the whole conversation had switched to criticizing his and Jun's skills in front of the whole team. In the meantime, Jun death glared at him.

"However," Tacky continued, "Nino's lack of communication with his models makes working with him difficult too at times."

"Hah!" Jun shot back at Nino, triggering the other to roll his eyes again.

"And you still call me Takizawa-san instead of Tacky," their boss addressed Jun again, pouting. "It… hurts my feelings. Aren't we some sort of a small family here?"

"Right, Boss! We're a happy family, Boss!" Aiba suddenly jumped up from his chair, excitedly. "I mean, Tacky… Boss…"

Tacky laughed, smiling at Aiba and confirming that he could address him as he liked, it was fine for him, he just didn't like to be addressed too formally by his employee of over 10 years.

"A weird family," Nino snorted, earning an aghast stare from his self-proclaimed best friend Aiba but he ignored it. "If I may say something," he continued, waiting for Tacky to give him permission to talk, who nodded in agreement. "If you put it like this you can also just say that both of us are shit boss material and assign the task to someone else, maybe someone new, from outside."

"No, no, no," his boss interrupted Nino. "This is not what I'm planning. I don't think you understand. What I wanted to make clear is that you are both very competent photographers but both of you have some flaws that make you not ready to take over a leading position yet. But I believe in you and your skills and I want you to challenge your weak points and grow into the position. And when that happened, I will decide which of you will become the new boss."

"What if I don't want to become boss?" Nino offered, even if the alternative wasn't perfect either. But honestly, he didn't know what would be the worse option for him - he being boss or Jun being boss.

"Right, what if Nino declines and I volunteer, isn't the problem solved then?" Jun agreed.

"That isn't an option. I want the best boss possible, not a volunteer. I trust you. You're both fitting, or let's say I'm convinced you will become fitting," Tacky smiled.

Nino frowned, exchanging another critical look with Jun, seeing the wheels behind his colleague's furrowed thick eyebrows working as he searched for the right words. "And… how are you going to decide then? What are we supposed to do?"

"I'm not leaving the country tomorrow. There's still a lot of things to prepare and to organise here. It's not like I'm throwing you into cold water. So I will give you two the time to prove yourself and I want you to be serious about it – yes Nino, you too, or you can go find another job right now," Tacky explained, throwing a look at Nino at the last part, who gaped at him.

"But how?" Jun asked again, obviously feeling lost.

Their boss chuckled. "You will find a way. Just give your best, think about your flaws and how you can improve them and when the time is here, I'll let you know of my decision. You can come up with a joined solution or you can challenge each other in some kind of competition, just, don't ruin my studio, please."

Jun's eyes suddenly sparkled. "Did you say competition?"

"Oh oh…," Nino turned on his heel and left his boss' office. He had enough.

\- + -

Nino immediately fled to the small balcony to escape from Jun. It wasn't a secret that Jun liked competitions, especially direct ones. Jun liked playing games against each other (he and Aiba used to decide what to get for lunch over a small Janken tournament) and he liked rivalry. Well, this wasn't exceptionally bad, Nino thought because for Jun it was going to be challenging and fun. But to be honest, he himself wasn't really the competitive type. He preferred doing things alone, without having to compare his efforts and results with other people. And now, he was forced into this strange situation, thanks to his boss. Great!

Taking his camera out of his bag, Nino sighed deeply. He carefully weighed the object in his hands, paying attention not to grab it too firmly, sparing the sensitive parts. In an almost gentle gesture, he uncapped the lid of the camera's lens and lifted the camera to his eyes when he hunkered down to find the right angle to focus on some strawberry pots hanging on the balcony's bannister. The sunlight was just right at this very moment, making the red of the strawberries almost glowing and drawing fine patterns on the tiled balcony floor with the shadows of the plant's leaves. A small moment, for others probably without any meaning, but for Nino, a moment full of beauty, worthy of being caught in a picture.

Snap.

Just then, he heard voices approaching him from behind, and he knew his moment of silence was over when he heard his name called out by Jun who was followed by – who else – Aiba. The young man stepped onto the balcony next to Nino, throwing him a challenging look, his lips adorned by a competitive grin. Nino held back his impulse to roll his eyes, or he might risk a fight for which he didn't have the nerves.

"What do you want, Jun?" he asked instead, trying to sound as neutral as possible.

"We have to figure this out, Nino," Jun said, sounding much too excited for his colleague's taste. "I always thought that we're rivals and now we've become rivals for real."

"I do not really have any interest in competing with you, though," Nino replied with a small sigh.

Jun arched one of his characteristic thick eyebrows at the other. "So you're giving up before trying? Then you can hand in your resignation letter as Takizawa-san said."

Nino gave him a sour look. "I could lose on purpose."

"Don't say that, Nino," suddenly, Aiba chimed into the conversation. "That would be the same as giving up before trying! If you want, I can help you!"

"Masaki!" Jun whirled around, bewildered, maybe even a little hurt.

Aiba frowned apologetically. "Jun, he's my best friend!"

"And what about me?! I'm your boyfriend, remember?!"

"I'll help you too, of course!"

"I don't think that's such a good idea, Aiba," Nino said, trying to get between the two before it escalated further.

"OK, so what about making this a little more interesting?" Jun then suggested with a strange gesture of his hand which could mean all or nothing.

Nino frowned at him. "What do you mean?"

"Let's make a bet!" Jun beamed in excitement.

"A bet?"

"We'll come up with different topics and each of us has to produce a picture for it within a certain time frame. Our boss will then decide who "wins" and the one who wins the most rounds will become the new boss."

"Jun, I told you already, I don't really want to compete," Nino sighed again, trying to make his point clear but Jun seemed to ignore him. For him it was certain, he had to win no matter what but in order to win, he needed someone to defeat. Well, at least one of them would be entertained by this whole thing, Nino thought.

"We'll both pick a random model for each other, nobody that he knows – but thanks for volunteering, Masaki -," the photographer continued excitedly, gently pushing down Aiba's raised hand, "Someone unknown, someone we never met before and who has no experience in modelling at all."

"And what is the meaning behind all this, if I may ask?" Nino arched a critical eyebrow at his colleague.

"Takizawa-san –"

"Tacky-san. Or Boss. Or Tacky. Not Takizawa-san!" Aiba corrected his boyfriend in a determined but still caring voice.

"Thanks, Masaki. Well, Tacky…san wants us to polish our social skills when handling photo models, right?" Jun offered.

"Yes, I remember his speech from before," Nino nodded in agreement.

"So what would be a better way to practise that from scratch than picking someone who has no idea what all this is about and let's say…," again Jun's weird hand movement, "Polish them up to become a good model and to take the best photos possible in the end?"

Nino wasn't sure if he heard correctly. "You mean we shall show our skills as photographers in choosing a shit model and make it shine nevertheless?"

"What harsh words, Nino…," Aiba slightly shook his head.

"Basically yes, that's what I mean," Jun agreed.

"Well…," Nino hesitated. Jun's enthusiastic look on him – as well as Aiba's – was undaunted and he knew that his friends would annoy him with this idea until he would finally agree. Further, if he was completely honest about it, Jun's idea was good. Not that Nino was actually interested in upgrading his supposedly missing social skills in handling his customers, but if his boss criticised it so much, maybe he should really try to fix the problem. A bit. "Ok, why not," he gave in, averting his eyes from his friends. "I don't really care anymore..."

Aiba rejoiced and Jun's mischievous grin said nothing but "this is going to be fun, and wait until I crush you" or something in that category.

"Alright, then it's set," Nino's colleague nodded, satisfied. "I'll inform Tacky…san about this idea and then we'll go and search for a model."

But just before he could leave the balcony again, Nino looked at him again, to hold him back. "Wait, what about the bet? You said we'll make a bet, right? Or is this just about winning the boss job? Because you have to offer me something more." At least, Nino wanted to get something out of it.

"Alright," Jun sighed, rolling his eyes. "So let's say the winner gets 10.000 Yen from the other?"

"Hm…," Nino frowned for three seconds. "Deal."

Aiba chuckled. "Cheap."

"Hey!" Nino threw his friend a death glare.

"OK, shake on it!" Jun chimed enthusiastically, ignoring Nino's grumpy face. "Masaki, you're our witness!"

"Yes!"

"OK, shake on it," Nino finally agreed and reached out his hand to grab Jun's, not without adding a little extra pressure when shaking it.

As Jun and Aiba vanished back inside of the photo studio, Nino sighed for one last time, looking at the camera in his hands.

"What are we supposed to do now, Camelot?" he asked in a low voice before lifting his camera to his eyes again and pointing it into the blue-white patterned sky to take a picture.

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

"Nino, Nino!" Aiba barged into the back room, making Suzu yelp in surprise, as he dashed to Nino's place where he was working on his laptop editing pictures before he got shaken and pulled out of his concentration. "Ni-No!"

"I can hear you, Aiba, what is it?" Nino replied after sighing shortly and turning around in his seat, to face his overly excited friend.

"Boss is completely into Jun's idea of the photo competition with the no-name models!" Aiba burst.

Nino arched a sceptical eyebrow. "Is that so?"

Lacking any further response, he turned his swivel chair back to face his computer again, placing his elbows on the table before resuming his task. To be honest, the photographer had not wasted a single thought on the upcoming "competition" Jun came up with. He still had the tiny ounce of hope that his colleague and self-proclaimed rival had been making a joke or dismissed the idea since they hadn’t talked about in the past two days. At some point, Nino had considered the possibility of the announcement Tacky made about retreating from the Blue Hour in order to concentrate on business in New York was a bad dream. But then, his co-workers made it obvious enough that they were excited over Jun and Nino having to compete over the position of their boss' successor.

So Jun apparently had spent the last two days refining the idea he pitched to Nino the other day and introduced the concept to their boss. Nino clicked his tongue. He would bet his lunch on Jun being calculative and trying to earn extra points with Tacky with this move (showing how "serious" he was about the boss job), but Nino didn't care. It's not that his position about this situation had changed overnight. Let Jun show off as much as he liked. Nino was still not interested in becoming the new boss of the photo studio.

Anyway, his best friend seemed excited enough for two, Nino figured, as Aiba continued reporting to him. "He said he wants to hold an exhibition with all of your works at the end and people will see it and have to vote which pictures are the best and in the end, the one of you two with the most votes will be the winner and become the new boss!"

Nino frowned, finally considering Aiba's information worthy enough for him to drop his attention on picture editing for another moment.

"That… sounds like he's planning something big," he said, only slightly becoming nervous, turning to his friend and giving him a questioning look.

"He said it will be a big party!" Aiba exclaimed, making a gesture with his arms as if he tried to imitate an explosion. "It will be his farewell party and the celebration for the new boss all in one! Nino, isn't that exciting?!"

Again, Nino frowned. "I don't know, Aiba…," honestly, this sounded like pressurising. Nino hated the pressure. "I'm not that much into parties anyway," he mumbled.

Aiba rattled on the back of Nino's chair. "Oh come on, don't be such a kill-joy!"

"It's too early to get excited," the shorter man replied. "We don't even have our models yet!"

"We can change that," another voice chimed in suddenly and when Nino turned around again, he spotted Jun who had pushed his curly head around the corner and flashed a wide, challenging smile at him. "I'm free after work this evening, shall we go and pick out some models?"

"Oh yes, let's go search for the models!" Aiba yelled, even more, excited than his boyfriend, even more annoying, Nino thought. But he knew his friends. They (especially Aiba) wouldn't let go of him, so giving in – as so often – was definitely the easier and less stressful option.

"Well... I don't have any plans yet."

"Great!" Aiba cheered, immediately counting his friend's reaction as a yes. When he exchanged a happy thumbs-up with Jun, Nino rolled his eyes.

\- + -

As expected, Aiba bought ice cream for all of them, and even if Nino wasn't into sweet things and he considered it a bit too early in the season to indulge in collective ice cream licking, he accepted it with a small "thanks" and without any complaints. At least, Aiba had been thoughtful and chosen Nino's least disliked flavour for him - green tea, which wasn't that sweet in fact and thus, kind of acceptable.

Now Nino was sitting here on a bench next to his best friend and Jun, watching over the city's hustle and bustle as the evening drew close. Jun had chosen a relatively well-frequented pedestrian zone to look out for some potential models for their project. Nino snorted at the idea but came along nonetheless. What choice did he have anyway? Moreover, the sooner they settled this part, the sooner he could go home for today.

Aiba had already pointed out several people as part of his suggestions for potential models, but all of them had gotten dismissed in the blink of an eye. To be fair, Jun's idea was to choose some "normal" person, no-one who looked like they had model potential from birth, so it was logical that Aiba's choice of young, cheerful, dressed-up women didn't exactly meet the required standard.

Instead, Nino chose to make fun of Jun and suggested the most hilarious people he could spot – an extremely pierced young punk who looked so skinny that Nino expected a skeleton underneath his clothes, a peroxide blond, dark tanned Gyaru and a granny with a hunchback that passed them on her way home from grocery shopping. Perhaps, it would have been fun to try and see if Jun had the guts and skills to turn one of those people into a shining model with his talent, but Jun argued that he had some "more normal" people in mind. Thus, he also had restrained from suggesting impossibilities to Nino, thankfully. Nino figured quickly, that Jun was extremely serious about this whole situation. It was annoying…

While finishing his green tea ice cream, Nino decided to take the matter a bit more seriously too and finally pointed at someone who has already caught his eyes a few minutes ago. A street painter sitting on an upside-down wooden drink box, obviously sketching something on the canvas placed in front of him and looking like he would fall asleep any second despite his task.

"What about that guy?"

Jun snapped his head into the direction Nino was pointing at. "Who?"

"That painter over there."

Jun frowned. "He looks boring…"

"Go figure," Nino chuckled.

"It will indeed be challenging to portray an every-day face in an interesting way," Jun murmured, putting his hand on his chin in a thinking gesture. "And this is actually your first serious and useful suggestion, Nino."

"Plus in the end, you have to accept one of my proposals, right? You made the rules," the other photographer smirked, challenging. "So?"

"I'll go talk to him," Jun decided immediately and got up, Nino as well as excited Aiba watched after him before the latter jumped up and curiously followed his boyfriend.

\- + -

Since both, Jun and especially Aiba had significantly higher social skills than Nino, it didn't take them long to make the surprised painter open up to them and into a conversation. It turned out that his name was Ohno Satoshi. He was a freelancer and that spot in the pedestrian zone was his usual spot in the evenings for studying people passing by, portraying a few of them for a handful of yen. Further, he was undeniably broke. If it wasn't for his sister who seemed to provide him with shelter in her apartment for free, he might be a dead painter already and his works would probably actually sell well, he joked.

Honestly, Nino (who eventually joined them too) was surprised that Ohno could joke since he didn't exactly give the impression of a funny guy to him. Apparently, Nino was wrong, well, even that wasn't as much of a surprise. He'd never been good at assessing other people's characters, or to be honest, he was never really interested in things like that.

However, as soon as Jun approached the painter, told him about the project – and offered payment as compensation – Ohno was on board. Contacts were exchanged, arrangements got made and hands were shaken to seal the deal and shortly after Jun added "Test-shot with Ohno-kun at 10 am" to his next day's schedule.

They didn't find a model for Nino that evening. It was late after talking to Ohno (Aiba was just too chatty) and they weren't lucky enough to find someone else who fitted their criteria as perfectly as Ohno. In the end, Nino also clearly stated that he was not interested in turning an underaged High School girl from an ugly duckling into a swan, as Jun suggested half-heartedly when they ran out of motivation, and would possibly get into trouble with her parents. So Nino went home and the matter got postponed for now. He wasn't that sad about it. Compared to Jun, he wasn't in a hurry to actually start this shitty project.

Nonetheless, it seemed like there was no escape, as much as Nino had secretly wished for it, and so he wasn't surprised (even if displeased) when Jun approached him the next day, shortly after the lunch break, wearing an all too disconcerting evil grin on his face. Nino wanted to wipe it off his friend's face but instead decided to channel his displeasure into breathing in and out as calmly as possible and to face the situation like a man.

"Today is your day!" Jun said, taking his chair and rolling it over to Nino's desk who was looking through some pictures from a photoshoot from the previous day and doing some last editing, wanting to present to his customer the end results soon.

"What the hell did you do?" Nino asked as calm as possible.

"I found you a model."

"OK," Nino nodded slowly, not so surprised. It was inevitable anyway, wasn't it? "Who? And do I still have a say?"

Jun didn't say anything more and instead jumped up, grabbing Nino's arm, and pulling him to the front part of the studio. They came to a halt in front of Aiba who was standing there with another man that Nino almost overlooked due to his transparency, someone who looked as shy and nervous as it was humanly possible as if he was ready to get swallowed by the ground any second. When Nino's look fell on him, they locked eyes for a second, the man shying away immediately and Nino finding himself frowning at a strangely familiar feeling. It was just something very faint... but he felt like he actually knew that person. He looked a bit closer.

That guy in front of him was wearing a grey suit, nothing special, a typical office outfit, probably, glasses and his slightly too long hair was parted on the left side in an incredibly boring hairstyle. His face was round and his lips pulpous. All in all, in an odd way, nothing about this person seemed to match...

"May I introduce you to Sakurai Sho-san," Jun finally said, gesturing at the man. "He works in this building too, in one of the full floor offices upstairs."

The man startled slightly by the sound of his own name and bowed hastily at Nino. "Go – good day."

Wait, that voice, that way of wishing him good day... When a memory of the sound of a distant, stumbled "Go – good morning" hit Nino, his eyes widened.

"Oh," Nino muttered.

Without returning the greeting, he pulled Jun with him into the back. Jun quickly threw an apologetic look at the other man, who was left behind, looking like he was lost on a foreign island if there wasn't Aiba who patted his shoulder friendlily.

"You're being very impolite, I might say, Nino," Jun hissed in a sharp tone when they stopped.

Nino ignored his critique. "Jun, seriously, what am I supposed to do with tha- I mean him?!"

"What?" Jun shrugged. "Doesn't he make a fine model for your purpose?"

"He looks completely useless!" Nino snorted.

"That's the point in all this," Jun argued and the other sighed heavily. "Hey, don't look at me like that, you picked that plain, weird painter for me who looks like he shares more of Shige's characteristics than we assumed," he continued and admittedly when Nino recalled the test shooting Jun had with Ohno a few hours ago, and how unnerved Jun threw his model out for the day afterwards after pressing a few bills into his hands, it had been far from easy. "Compared to that, you might even be lucky. Further, you don't even have to pay him, he's volunteering."

"What?" Nino gaped at his colleague in disbelief. Admittedly, this would indeed be a plus point.

"Seems that he has the hots for you," Jun giggled, nudging Nino's side. "Or he's stalking you because he wants to kill you. I don't know."

"Stalking me?" the other man asked confused, after pushing Jun aside to stop him from nudging him further. Nino definitely preferred if Jun would stick to exchanging body contact with his boyfriend Aiba instead.

Jun frowned. "Do you know that guy by any chance?"

"I don't!" Nino replied quickly before pursing his lips. Jun arched his eyebrows and Nino gave in. "Well, we rode the elevator together on Monday but that's all, as you said, he's working in the same building, right? I never took notice of him before, though."

"You sure?"

Nino frowned. "Yeah, why do you ask?"

"I saw him loitering around in the entrance hall downstairs around lunch break and to me, it looked like he has been waiting - for you," the other man answered, crossing his arms.

"For me? Are you sure?"

"Pretty much, yes," Jun nodded. "But you didn't notice him at all and when you hopped on the elevator, that idiot tripped over his own feet and fell down before he could follow you. Poor guy, you should have seen him... I helped him up and asked if he needed something from you and he turned all shy and red. He didn't need to say anymore. When I told him about our project, he was hooked immediately, as I said, even without any promised payment."

"And you think that's because of me?" Nino still didn't get it.

"Probably," Jun shrugged. "However, you should go out and tell him if you accept him as your model or not. I have to go to an appointment now, so have fun!"

The photographer fetched some notes, which contained some information about an upcoming event shooting, from his desk, as well as his already packed photo bag and waved at Nino before he hurried away. The latter could hear him saying goodbye to Aiba and the other guy in the studio, wishing him "Good luck" which was followed by a stuttered "Tha – Thank you."

Great. Now Nino had to deal with that shit all alone, he thought, sighing. But Jun was right. He was being impolite, another testimony of his non-existent social skills. He should probably try to pull himself together.

Finally, instead of greeting the not-so-stranger, Nino approached him directly, darting sharp eyes at the man as if he planned to stare him down. He might have found it funny that the man retreated a little, instinctively stepping closer to Aiba as if seeking protection, but Nino wasn't in the mood for fun.

"So… let's set things straight," he finally started, crossing his arms as he stopped in front of the businessman, glaring at him.

"Eh?" was everything the man could produce.

"Do you have a secret crush on me, or why are you stalking me?" Nino asked directly, scanning the businessman strictly from head to toes.

"What?" the businessman replied, aghast before he blushed slightly and obviously became even more nervous than he already was. "Ah Uhm," he stumbled. "No, no, I'm not stalking you…"

Critically, the photographer locked eyes with the stranger again, trying to figure out if he was lying. Even if, Nino concluded that no matter what, that shy guy would never be a threat to him, so he probably didn't need to worry at all anyway.

"Good," he slowly replied. "Because I'm not interested."

The guy in suit gulped visibly but didn't reply.

"Alright, so personal matters aside, "Nino continued. "About that model thing -"

"I - I do admire you though," the suited man suddenly interrupted him, much to the photographer's surprise. The man's cheeks had taken a deep shade of red. "Really..."

"Admire?" Nino repeated, wondering.

"I mean, you're so… cool, you know?" the man started explaining, lifting his hand to rub his neck in a cute gesture. Was that a little smile on his face? "You look so confident as if nothing in the world could ever disturb you."

Well, Nino thought, he had stopped letting people hurt him years ago. It was all a matter of attitude.

"I - I want to be like that too," the man's voice lowered. "I want you to teach me how I can become as confident and cool as you are."

Nino couldn't help but laugh out loud, earning a surprised look by the man in a suit. This was definitely the strangest thing he had ever heard from someone else. "Admiring" was something that Nino definitely didn't bring into connection with himself, neither with his appearance nor his character. There was nothing to admire, definitely not.

His "cool" appearance was all thanks to Aiba who – unasked - was giving him styling tips ever since they started working together, even if Nino never really followed them. It was usually Aiba who gave him nice clothes as presents or pulled him to go shopping together on a rare day off, or cut his hair when it became too long, and stuff like that.

His "confidence" was simply a lack of caring about what other people might think of him. Nino's character was far from cool too. After all, recently he had to accept criticism from his boss, confirming how bad Nino was with people. It was surprising that his attitude, which was more a dried shell to hide Nino's inabilities, seemed to have some appeal to another person, making him even admirable.

Anyway, Jun had misinterpreted the situation (and Nino would rub his mistake on his face). This guy didn't have a crush on Nino. For some strange reason, Nino was simply his role model. Which, admittedly, was kind of flattering, Nino thought. Flattering but unexpected. Who would pick a weird guy like him as a role model?! It was ridiculous... But if it helped Nino to get a model for free, he should probably consider it, he thought.

For now, Nino didn't want to crush that guy's hope by telling him the truth behind his "cool, confident attitude" and so he decided to play along.

"Is there someone you want to impress?" he asked challenging, taking a few steps closer.

"There… no, no one in particular," the man replied, shaking his head. "I just want to overcome my shyness, it's always been... a nuisance and if you can help me –"

"You know that I'm a photographer, not a shrink, right?" the photographer arched an eyebrow.

The man nodded excitedly. "I – I totally know that!"

"I cannot offer you any personality training or anything, but if you become a model for my project, you might probably become more confident with time, if you give your best. I will only take pictures of you," Nino continued. "Boss you around, give instructions on what you have to do in front of the camera. Maybe even yell at you, I can't promise anything else... can you even take that?"

Furrowed eyebrows and clutched hands. "I'll try…"

"You're a strange guy," Nino snorted but for a little tiny moment, he had to admit that he found that strange guy a little tiny bit cute. Maybe.

"I'm sorry," the other man murmured, embarrassed.

"What was your name? Sakurai?"

"Sakurai, yes," the man straightened before bowing at Nino again, quickly. "Sakurai Sho. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Nino sniffed shortly and cleared his throat. "Alright. Sorry for not introducing myself properly. I'm Ninomiya Kazunari."

"I know!" Sakurai replied with a smile, causing Nino to frown critically.

"You're sure you are not a creepy stalker?"

Sakurai blushed, sheepishly. "I promise, I'm not."

"Ok," Nino chuckled. "Then let's work well together."

An incredible smile broke out on Sakurai's face –he probably wouldn't be such a bad choice as a model, after all, Nino thought for a moment – before he bowed again, his weird hair getting messed up by the movement. "Thank you, Ninomiya-san, Thank you so much!"

"Aiba?" Nino then addressed his friend who was still standing next to them, witnessing the scene with a broad grin. The photographer gestured at Sakurai who had straightened up again and now looked at the two men, feeling a bit confused. "Your job is called!"

"Aiba Masaki at your service, Nino-chan!" the cheerful stylist replied and lifted his hand to a salute.

"Don't call me –chan, you know I hate it!" Nino grumbled.

"Alright, Nino-sama," Aiba grinned even broader.

"Take Sakurai with you and get lost," the photographer replied, not even bothering to use any honorific for his new model. "Do you think you can do something with… that?"

Sakurai looked a little hurt when Nino pointed at him with his thumb nonchalantly as if he wasn't an existing person standing there right in front of him, but an ugly thing.

"Well," Aiba said smiling, crossing his arms in front of his chest and letting his eyes take in the view of the man in suit again "You may not be able to see it, Nino, but our friend here is definitely good material."

"Prove yourself," Nino arched a challenging eyebrow at his friend.

"You're gonna be in awe," the other replied with a thumbs-up. "Sakurai-san? Do you have some time right now?"

"Ah, sure, I have the afternoon off," the man nodded.

"Great!" Aiba cheered. "We're going to get you changed and I'll give you a proper hairstyle and then Nino can do some first test shoots if you agree."

Sakurai looked slightly nervous but nodded his head in response. "Please, feel free to do anything you want with me."

"Bold," Nino chuckled jokingly.

"I - I mean, I can use any styling tips you come up with and you're free to style me as you see it fit," Sakurai said, blushing and Nino couldn't help but chuckle.

Aiba gave his friend a strict look. "Let me do my miracle. Now Nino, shoo!"

\- + -

"Miracle" was indeed the word that popped up Nino's mind when Aiba finally came to get him and pulled him into the styling room, presenting him with his latest creation. He was obviously proud of the outcome.

There was a man, dressed up much more casually and with a fresh hairstyle that made him look like a completely new human being. Nino's jaw literally dropped to the floor at the image that was in front of him – if he hadn't known who this man was supposed to be, he definitely would never have recognised him as that swot Sakurai Sho.

Abandoned was the boring grey suit, replaced by some of Aiba's emergency spare clothes that he used to store in a small suitcase at work, – knowing just too well that men often came underdressed or overdressed to photoshoots – which seemed to fit just too well. Sakurai was now wearing a pair of worn jeans, not too loose, not too tight, as if he was the exact same size as Aiba, and on top, he wore a white tank-top highlighted with a long fine chained necklace with a pendant consisting of a simple arrangement of brown feathers that fell over his chest, and an unbuttoned brown shirt with a slightly crinkled collar.

The outfit gave him a natural look, as the brown colours bounded him to earth, and it made the tone of his skin shine in a pleasant colour. The sleeves of the shirt were rolled up to his elbows and Nino would be lying if he said he wasn't impressed by the surprisingly strong arms of the man.

His black hair was far from the strangely parted plain hairstyle from about an hour before, now his hair looked fresh and trendy. Aiba seemed to have cut it a bit on the sides and around the neck before styling it with a bit of hair wax to give it a ruffled look. Now, with the much wilder styled hair that fell in front of his face, Sakurai reminded Nino more of one of those pretty boyband faces than a boring office worker. His skin didn't look as pale any longer, which meant Aiba had probably added some makeup for the coming photoshoot. And without his thick glasses, Nino was now able to see Sakurai's eyes properly – big, round, dark brown eyes which turned into adorable little crescents as soon as the man flashed him a quick, insecure smile.

For a moment, Nino was simply stunned, completely unable to move.

"Ah, sorry," Sakurai moved, his impressive appearance melting into embarrassed movements as the shy businessman returned – and quickly leaned to the tables next to him, picking up his glasses, and almost knocking over some of Aiba's styling products in the process. "I have to put them on, I can't see anything without them...," he mumbled.

It didn't matter. Not at all. With his current appearance, even the dark thick-framed glasses fit so perfectly, even giving him the last dose of subtle sexiness. Nino wanted to hit himself with those thoughts and quickly shook his head before his new model addressed and looked up to him again.

"Ninomiya-san, what... what do you think?" Sakurai asked, looking down at himself a bit shyly. "Do you think you can... work with this?" a crooked smile adorned the man's face.

Nino swallowed after having to force his jaw to stick together again.

"Good Job, Aiba," he murmured instead of answering, then he turned to Sakurai. "Are you ready for some test shoots?"

"Uhm, yes," the man stiffened immediately but followed Nino into the studio without any further hesitation.

Nino tried to distract himself from his thoughts about how damned good that Sakurai-guy was looking, as he searched for a suitable background for the photoshoot. On the wall several panorama background pictures were projected onto a screen, that could be changed with some standard pictures. He chose a natural background showing a cornfield with some wild poppies and cornflowers, and told Sakurai to stand in front of the screen and face the camera. Aiba followed the two of them with a small comb in the one hand and some first-aid make-up supplies stuffed into his waist apron's pockets. He slightly pushed Sakurai into position and fumbled a bit with his hair, while Nino adjusted the lights and reflectors. He then pulled out his camera from his bag, carefully, as usual, patting it slightly with a small smile on his face.

"Now it's our turn to impress," Nino whispered before he fixated his camera on the tripod and took the first glimpse through the lens.

Nino swallowed again. Sakurai looked hot. Undoubtedly. And the natural background he chose matched Aiba's choice for the outfit perfectly. This was definitely something he could work with. His model was probably even much easier to handle than sleepy-face Ohno Satoshi who he picked for Jun.

Nino grinned, suddenly feeling excited and probably tasting a hint of victory on his tongue for the first time in a long while.

TBC


	3. Chapter 3

Nino's newly found sparkling enthusiasm about the photo competition and his new model ebbed away immediately as soon as Sakurai started his – well, you probably couldn't even really call it that - posing in front of the camera.

Saying he was absolutely horrible would be the understatement of the century. His limbs were stiff, his face's only emotion was sheer panic, his eyes were goggling strained and his slightly parted lips looked more sloppy and stupid than sexy. And no matter what instructions Nino gave, "stay straight", "lean forward a bit", "give me a smile", it looked like the words were a completely foreign language for the man in front of the lens.

"Can you even smile in front of the camera?" Nino grumped after he took the nth picture of Sakurai's dopey face.

He knew that Sakurai could smile, he had just seen it, even if it was insecure and crooked, but if that had been unintentional, it was indeed possible that Sakurai didn't know how to smile when being photographed. Nino sighed heavily.

Sakurai stopped in his movements and tried to focus on his face's muscles movements, pulling the corners of his lips up, but instead of a smile, his efforts ended in a grimace that made Nino think about spooky clowns in awful horror movies.

"No, no, no, NO!" the photographer yelled, turning away from his camera and covering his eyes. "That's not a smile, that's giving me the creeps, stop that," he turned to his model again. "I said, STOP!"

Sakurai stopped smiling, dropping his shoulders. "I'm sorry…," he murmured.

"What the hell is wrong with you," Nino clattered, almost desperately.

Comparing with Jun it was unlikely for him to lose his patience with a client, but honestly, this was taking more than two hours and now despite Sakurai looking splendid after Aiba's makeover, it seemed to be leading to nowhere and it was frustrating like hell.

"You can't even smile naturally? Even I can smile into a camera and I'm not even used to smiling."

"True," Aiba, who was still accompanying the two of them, trying his best to cheer on Sakurai, nodded in agreement. "Nino is rarely smiling. But he can. And he has a cute smile."

Nino sent his friend a death glare. "Unnecessary information, Aiba, shut up."

"Be nice, I'm the stylist of your model, after all," Aiba replied huffily.

Rolling eyes. "Please shut up."

"Come on, show him how to smile correctly for a picture, I'm sure he's willing to learn," Aiba pushed his friend.

Nino shook his head. "No, you show him and then he can practice in front of the mirror! I have enough for today. I still have work to do, real work!"

"You know, I do have work too!" Aiba huffed back. "Jun is coming back soon for another photo shoot for a family portrait and I'm expecting the family in about 20 minutes to style them."

"Let's just stop for today," the photographer said, still looking unnerved. He flashed an annoyed look at his model and mumbled something like "Thanks for today," even if he actually didn't really mean it, took his camera with him and stormed off.

Back at his desk, he placed his camera next to his laptop and took out the memory card, inserting it so that he could check if the pictures he took were really as horrible as he feared them to be. While he was starting the picture-editing software, probably to try saving some of the less horrible pictures, he could still hear the distant voices of Sakurai and Aiba.

"I'm really sorry, Aiba-san, I didn't want to make him angry...," Sakurai said in a low voice.

He sounded down and if Nino wasn't that worked up at the moment, he might even feel a bit guilty for being the one responsible for his model's mood. He might not be that good with people, but he also wasn't a monster, after all.

"It's OK, Sakurai-san, don't worry," Aiba replied in his usual warm and calming voice. "He's just a little worked up," A little?! "He doesn't like competitions, you see?" Aiba got a point there, indeed.

Sakurai chuckled, probably trying to hide his embarrassment and disappointment. "I guess I'm just a useless case..."

Immediately, Aiba chimed in. "Don't say that! You look great! The only thing left now is that we have to make you look great in front of the camera too. Nino will find a way, I'm sure of it. It's his job after all. Leave me your contact data here and he'll contact you for the next photoshoot -"

Missing the rest of the conversation completely, Nino was staring at one of the pictures he had taken during the last two hours. Sakurai was just standing there, his long slender fingers playing a bit absentmindedly with the feather charm of the accessory hanging around his neck, while he lifted his head slightly, looking aside, probably into the direction of Aiba who was talking to him at that time. His look was natural, his face soft and showing a cute expression of curiosity. His posture was a bit curved, his sloppy shoulders hanging, his body language communicating insecurity and some kind of slight tension that seemed to be normal for the man, but he didn't look as stiff as on the other pictures. He looked good, charming in some strange way, even if he might lack confidence. He looked adorable, even, waking protective instincts Nino didn't even know he possessed.

This was a picture, Nino had snapped when Sakurai was not looking, was not focusing on trying to pose impressively for the camera, or attempting to smile and creep the hell out of the photographer. Nino sighed when he realised what that meant. It wasn't that Sakurai wasn't photogenic, far from it, it was just that as soon as he was aware of being in focus, of having a camera taking pictures of him, he turned into a stiff bunch of nerves that made it impossible for Nino to work properly with him. And this was probably due to the man's insecure character. People who weren't confident tended to think too much about everything, and once they felt observed, their motions and mannerism became forced and unnatural.

According to Nino's experience, usually, such people would avoid situations like being photographed, filmed, or positioned to become the focus of other people's attention in general, at any price. He knew, he was one of them. But Sakurai had asked for it, had taken Jun's offer with open arms because he wanted this. He wanted to change, become more confident, as he said, more like Nino – or at least the Nino he was seeing in him. For some reason, Nino felt a tiny bit impressed by that man. He didn't know his full motives, if he really just wanted to get rid of his nervousness or if there was some hidden agenda, another reason why he wanted to change who he was. It made Nino curious.

For a short moment, the photographer felt like he wanted to help Sakurai. At least, more than he wanted to win this stupid competition with Jun in which he wasn't interested in the first place, for some reason he wanted to help that man.

Skipping through the rest of the photos made the photographer sigh again, though. He covered his eyes over Sakurai's horror clown smile. If he really took this challenge, Nino thought, there would be a long long way to their goal, whatever exactly that might be.

\- + -

After work, the photographers decided to go out for drinks. Nino hadn't been in the mood, but Aiba dragged him along anyway and so he found himself in between Suzu and Keiko, sitting across their boss and of course Aiba and Jun – Aiba leaning his cheek against his boyfriend's shoulder cutely. Even Shige was there, much to everyone's surprise.

"What are you doing here, anyway?" Nino snapped into Shige's direction.

"I figured, this thing might be a bit interesting for once," the other replied, sipping on a glass of orange juice when literally everybody else had ordered a beer, staring at Nino.

"Oh Lord, please, someone save me," Nino murmured, downing the rest of his already half-empty beer glass.

Suzu giggled, right next to him. Keiko joined, slapping Nino's shoulder and telling him that his participation in their outings was at least as rare as Shige's. Tacky lifted his hand to call a waiter to them, ordering the second round already, just to make sure nobody had a dry throat. At least, Nino thought, the good thing about going out for drinks with his colleagues was, that without fail, their boss would pay the bill. That's the generous man he was.

"So," the man then started, his look wandering between Jun and Nino. "Any first reports? How were your shootings?"

Nino had already figured that this might be the main topic this evening, remembering that Aiba told him already, how excited Tacky was about this whole competition thing between him and Jun. Nino reached his hand for Aiba's beer glass to steal another sip, just not to be forced to give an answer right away. It was Jun then, who started his very detailed report, from the moment Nino had pointed out that plain painter in the pedestrian zone, until the moment he lost his nerves with Ohno-kun, who's facial expression had been the same over and over during the whole test shooting they made in the late morning. Jun concluded his report with a huge sigh and the suspicion that his model in fact had zero interest in modelling for his projects, to which Nino snippily replied that Jun probably had to raise the fee he promised the poor painter as fringe benefits.

After that, Nino didn't feel like reporting about his own miserable test shooting with Sakurai at all, so he dropped the details and started by simply pointing out how marvellous Aiba's styling had been and that everything that was left now was simply a bit of practice to get his unexperienced model to shine.

Of course, Shige then had to point out how horrible the shooting went – it was only then when Nino found out that the freelancer photograph seemed to be spying on his photoshoot, probably drawn by Nino's yells of frustration in between some shots of Sakurai. Of course, also Tacky had seen the scene for a bit since he was present at the studio too for some time during the happenings and so Nino wasn't surprised by his boss' amused laughter in between.

"He is really photogenic," Nino finally admitted, putting his second empty glass of beer down on the table with a bit too much force. "He just doesn't know it and that makes him do all those strange things with his arms and his shoulders and his lips..."

Nino shivered once more at the memory of that creepy clown's smile of Sakurai, the curved up lips combined with his steering eyes and he swore he would get nightmares the following night from that look. Aiba, across the table, burst out laughing, a hint of tipsiness audible in the way his voice gurgled. Jun reached for Aiba's beer, taking it from his hands gently, and replaced it with a glass of sparkling water that he had thoughtfully ordered for his boyfriend. Gradually, the atmosphere around the table got louder and livelier.

"That guy is really fun," Aiba snorted.

When Suzu and Tacky made curious eyes, the stylist and Jun joined forces to tell the story of the clumsy and shy businessman Sakurai Sho who apparently had chosen cool and confident Ninomiya Kazunari as his role model, accidentally making the photographer believe that he had a crush on him, due to his ambiguous stalking attitude.

"Hey, it's only your fault that I thought he had a crush on me," Nino immediately blamed Jun who just shrugged and joined his boyfriend's joyful laughter, cuddling a bit closer.

Tacky seemed to be having the time of his life too, drinking more and more and watching his employees bickering, amused. Just when Nino was about to reach over to Jun for punching his shoulder (or so people thought he was aiming for in this slightly tipsy attitude), Tacky spoke up.

"So basically, your models are inexperienced as hell and you have no idea how to deal with them," he summed up the situation. "That's really interesting."

Nino didn't reply, hiding behind his glass, while Jun immediately protested that he just had to get used to the situation and Ohno would become the perfect model before anybody could say the word "photograph" backwards – granted none of them was sober enough to handle the alphabet.

"Anyway, in order to help you guys out a little, what do you think about making them act in known situations for the beginning?" the boss then suggested earnestly, making Nino and Jun frown at him. "As Nino has already pointed out – and that's nothing new for you – people act the most natural and credible when they don't know there's a camera on them. And there are indeed people who can't deal with a camera, knowing that their presence is suddenly something important make them nervous and become stiff and unnatural, right?"

Nino nodded, finding his own thoughts from earlier that day voiced by his boss. "So what do you suggest?" he asked.

"First off, I am wondering if you guys," Tacky nodded at Nino and then at Jun. "Will agree if I get involved in your little project a little more."

"What does that mean?" Jun asked curiously.

"It means that I am the one choosing the topics for your photo challenges. How you interpret them is up to you, of course," their boss explained, earning a humming agreement by Jun as well as Nino.

"Why not?" the latter shrugged. Probably, it would make things even a little easier, since he had to admit that he didn't have any real plan on how to deal with this project yet, anyway.

"Alright! So I'm going to announce the first real topic for your competition now," Tacky said with an exciting broad grin. "The first topic will be "Work"."

The table fell silent for a moment until Shige broke it with an audible slurp from his orange juice. While Nino rolled his eyes and shot a bewildered look at the other man, Jun's jaw dropped as if he just got enlightened.

"Work?" Aiba repeated confused.

"Work," Tacky nodded.

"What does he mean by that?" Aiba whispered to his boyfriend, his look still confused.

Jun smiled at him and took Aiba's hand in his, pressing it slightly as he smiled and started to explain. "It means, we're going to take photos of our models while they are doing their usual work," he turned at Tacky. "Right, Boss?"

Tacky nodded satisfied, his arms crossed in front of his chest. "Their natural surrounding will make them act normal. They will forget that there is a camera pointing at them and you will take the chance to take shots of them when they look good, natural, and you will make use of your talent as photographers to find the right pictures to set them in the best light. With this, you will – even if their modelling doesn't really add to the shooting itself – get some good first results, something you can show them and boost their self-conscious and this will make them feel more relaxed for following shootings," the photographer continued his explanation.

"Oooh!" Aiba started at Tacky, eyes as big as the wheels of a car as he was struck by insight.

Nino, despite faking not paying too much attention, now looked at his boss, and he had to admit that the idea was brilliant. It just showed again how much Tacky knew about his job, no, not only his job but how much he actually knew about people. It was... admirable, Nino thought. It was something he himself would never have thought of. Probably, his boss was right. Neither Nino nor Jun were ready to become the successor of this brilliant man yet. There was still a lot for them to learn.

"I'm expecting some first results by the end of the week!" Tacky said enthusiastically and lifted his glass to make a toast to Jun and Nino.

Jun had already lifted his own glass, his look full of determination and confidence, and when he looked at Nino, he smirked at him challenging, until Nino mirrored the gesture, alongside with the others sitting around the table, and they clinked glasses altogether.

\- + -

Nino didn't even bother to warn Sakurai via e-mail or call when he went up to the 14th floor the next morning, his camera bag and Aiba in tow, and rang the bell to the man's company. He informed the receptionist of having something to discuss with Sakurai Sho and the girl behind the desk made a quick call to Sakurai's department to get him and his superior to come forth.

"Please let me just say a few words to my team and then you're free to do whatever pleases you," Ikuta Toma, apparently the chief of Sakurai's department, said with a wide smile.

"No worries, please take your time, we have to style Sakurai-san first anyway," Aiba flashed one of his usual bright smiles back in return. "Oh, and please tell your people, if anyone wants a quick styling check, I'm prepared." Aiba gave a thumbs-up while trying to wink.

"I'll tell them, thank you," Ikuta replied chuckling before he headed off.

Nino nodded thankfully, while Sakurai was standing there, cheeks flushed red. He definitely didn't expect the photographer and stylist to visit him during working hours, asking his boss for permission to have a photoshoot in their office – right now. This would surely become highly embarrassing, concern was written all over the man's face.

"You could have at least texted me before showing up here in surprise," the office worker said in a slightly cracking voice. His hairstyle was back to normal – although thanks to Aiba's cut yesterday, it looked much better and not as boring as before – and his plain grey suit didn't help in spicing up his appearance either. "I could have… I don't know, worn another suit at least."

"Don't worry, Sakurai-san, I brought two alternatives for you to choose from, I think they should fit your size," the stylist lifted the clothing bag hanging over his arm and smiled at the other man. "Is there a restroom we can use to change and style you?"

The young woman at the reception politely pointed in the direction of the big restrooms near the entrance and then handed Nino and Aiba some "visitor" badges that she begged them to wear as long as they were walking around their office rooms.

While Aiba vanished together with Sakurai to work on his appearance and prepare him for the upcoming photo shoot, Nino leaned against the reception and reviewed some of his shooting ideas while waiting. Depending on the rooms, there might be some interesting possibilities to capture the topic "work" in this office, but Nino was sure he had enough creativity to work with whatever that was waiting for him. It was his strength after all to put a setting into the right light and capture the right mood. The question was more about if Sakurai would manage to act normal and natural enough to make the setting including its model, look real. The real surroundings should help, but he would know that there's a camera and that might hinder him again. Nino sighed, wondering if this step was enough to make Sakurai loosen up a bit.

"Ninomiya-san?" he heard Ikuta's voice approaching him again and whirled around to face the man. "My employees gave their approval for the photoshoot. I beg you to only use our department's rooms for it, but you have a free hand in taking pictures of everything except confidential material, of course. So please no files, no computer screens displaying data, and such things."

"Of course not," Nino replied, bowing slightly. "If you wish, you can check all the pictures I take, before we leave the office and we can of course censor things if they happen to get displayed."

Ikuta nodded. "I would appreciate that."

"And as promised, I'll try to include your company's logo in a few pictures," the photographer said. "I guess, that doesn't count as confidential."

Ikuta chuckled and Nino smirked. It was probably only the promised hidden advertisement that the company would get when the photos were displayed in the exhibition Tacky was planning, that got Nino the approval from the higher-ups to allow the photographer to complete his work in their rooms, after all.

"Thank you very much. A few girls would like to take your stylist's offer by the way; they will show up here in a few minutes."

"Sure, no problem, my stylist should be finished with Sakurai soon," Nino nodded. "We will come over to the department when preparations are done."

"Great," Ikuta smiled before he excused himself with another nod. "Then I'm heading there first."

As announced, a small group of young women came along the corridor, chit-chatting excitedly about the upcoming photo shoot, even if they might only walk into a picture or stand in the background by chance, acting as extras to provide a realistic environment. They greeted Nino and asked him for a few details about the shooting and about the project Sakurai was involved in since he didn't seem to have told anybody yet. Nino told them the absolute minimum of what might be of interest to them, preferring to let his creative cells prepare for the shooting and not to get distracted too much.

It didn't take Aiba too long until he finished styling Sakurai and when the man came back from the restroom, dressed in a dark blue, fine pinstriped business suit, spiced up with a crimson necktie, his hair nicely styled and his glasses polished, Nino swallowed hard. Not to comment about how Sakurai's pimped up appearance was causing the office ladies to gasp at their co-worker, obviously stunned. Nino had to pull himself together not to chuckle at the hummed approval one of the girls gave when looking Sakurai but yeah, Nino couldn't blame her. Since Aiba had pointed out and proven Sakurai's "potential" to be a handsome man, the other day, Nino just couldn't deny that fact any longer.

The man had just the right statue, he wasn't too thin, nor too muscular, his face was a bit round but not chubby and showed a strong, attractive jawline. His eyes mostly looked nervous but they had some depth that made Nino curious and wanting to find out more about what might be taking place in the mind of Sakurai Sho, what moved him, what made him the way he was. He had beautiful soft dark hair and with just a tiny bit of styling by Aiba, it looked breathtaking. The glasses made him indeed look a bit nerdy, but for the shooting today, they fit perfectly, Nino decided. Further, Nino had to shamelessly admit that Sakurai radiated a certain subtle sexiness the man himself obviously didn't know about, which made him even sexier. Nino tried hard not to blush at that thought.

Seriously, if there just weren't those sloppy shoulders and his complete incapability of posing in front of a camera, Nino was convinced that guy would make a gorgeous model, actor, someone who would get the spotlight he deserved. Well, hopefully, Tacky's strategy would work and they could at least reduced Sakurai’s posing and smiling problem in this shooting.

"Good morning," Aiba greeted the group of office ladies with a beaming smile and followed them to the restroom – they allowed him to step into the women's restroom just this once – to freshen up their hair and make-up a little.

About an hour later, they were in the middle of the shooting, Nino was already trying his best not to lose his nerves with Sakurai's incapability of acting naturally in his natural environment. The man was just too nervous, too aware of Nino's presence and this was affecting his behaviour immensely. Sakurai already managed to tint his hands blue with a broken pen (that he broke himself accidentally, apparently), spread a mountain of papers all over the floor and dropped his stapler twice, the second time ungraciously hitting his head on his desk in the process of picking it up again. Nino lowered his camera, sighing deeply, not knowing if he should laugh or cry.

"Is he… Seriously, don't be so fucking nervous, Sakurai!" he yelled at the man who turned around, blushing embarrassed.

"Sorry, I'm –," the man tried to say something but then the telephone rang, he cringed and picked it up. Nino used the chance to sneak around him a little bit and take a few shots, hoping it would look natural in the pictures.

"Just that you know, he really is that clumsy," Ikuta said in a low voice as he tapped the photographer's shoulder to get his attention. "Even if he's not under camera surveillance."

"You're kidding me…," Nino shot a frowning look at the man before he continued snapping pictures of Sakurai and his surroundings, hoping at least to get something that would be useful in the end.

"I'm not. He's a real goof," Ikuta chuckled.

"This is just too difficult," Nino murmured frustrated, thinking hard trying to figure out some ideas that would help in this situation. "Does he have a problem with his nerves or something?"

"Well, relaxing isn't his forte, I'd say."

Sakurai ended the phone call and turned around to Nino as if he wanted to continue the sentence he wanted to say before. Nino waved it off and instructed the man to just continue working.

"Although…," Ikuta added, crossing his arms in a thinking gesture. Nino picked up the hint of an idea in the man's voice and looked at him curiously. "What do you think about taking pictures of lunch break?"

"Lunch break?" Nino arched his eyebrows questioningly.

The other man grinned, pointing at Sakurai. "You have to know that guy just loves eating. Seriously. And I think it's then when he relaxes, he forgets everything around him. It might not completely fit your topic though?"

Suddenly, Nino smirked satisfied. He looked at Ikuta. "Not exactly but you know, you gave me a good idea, I think."

Letting Ikuta stand there on his own, a wondering look on his face, Nino looked around for Aiba who had chosen to stay for a while and watch the shooting's progress. He gave him some quick instructions and pressed a few bills into his hand. Aiba rushed away and when he returned about 10 minutes later, he was carrying a big plastic bag filled with cartons and a huge tray of paper cups filled with extremely delicious smelling coffee.

"Hey, everybody, it's time for a break!" Aiba chimed, drawing everyone's attention towards him. Nino moved and then he was right behind his friend, his camera ready. "Thanks for your hard work," the cheerful stylist added with a huge smile and started passing around the coffee.

According to Nino's instructions, he made sure that Ikuta would be the first one to receive a cup – as a small apology for messing up with his department – before he divided the rest to the other office workers, including Sakurai.

"A decaf for you, Sakurai-san," Aiba said, holding the cup out for the man. "Hope that's fine with you."

Sakurai stared at him, stunned. "How do you know I don't take caffeine?" he wondered.

Aiba quickly glanced at Nino next to him and shrugged. "Nino said better no caffeine for you."

Sakurai looked at the paper cup in his hands before he searched for Nino's eyes – or camera, that the other still held up in front of him.

"Thank you very much for your concern, Ninomiya-san," the man said and then he smiled.

Smiled so naturally as if he had never done anything else. The corners of his lips curled up slowly, showing his cute white teeth, his cheeks got rounder and a little red and his eyes narrowed, forming crescents. Sakurai's whole face was glowing and Nino's heart made an awkward jump shortly before his finger pushed the shutter button as if on impulse.

Snap.

"And now – Donuts!" Aiba yelled before Nino could even say anything to Sakurai and the office cheered.

Not that Nino would know what to say to the man, it would probably sound strange if he told the man that he assumed that his fidgeting personality would be even worse with caffeine in his blood. He also didn't want to tell him what strange thing that smile of him just did to his heart. No, definitely not.

Ikuta's remark about Sakurai's weak point for food worked wonders. Not only did it earn Nino a picture of Sakurai's most beautiful smile, but after Aiba had handed out all the coffee and doughnuts, the atmosphere was just great. People chatted a bit more, Sakurai seemed to feel much more comfortable and especially while he was eating his doughnut as he was typing his report, for a moment he didn't even look nervous at all.

In the end, Nino even managed to encourage him to pose for him a bit, to sit in a specific position, look into a certain direction, to lean over to a colleague, pointing at something on the computer screen, to pick up the phone and pretend he was making a phone call, and whatnot. Still, the man seemed a bit stiff, however, slowly but surely, things became better, a little smoother, a little less awkward and so Nino could finish the shooting before lunchtime and he seemed quite satisfied with the result.

When he went through the pictures together with Ikuta, seeking approval to use them for the stated purposes, surprisingly, Ikuta asked Nino to join him for lunch. The photographer accepted, wondering if they would go with the whole team, but it seemed like Ikuta had something to talk about with him, so it would just be the two of them.

When Aiba left for lunch with Jun after waving goodbye to Sakurai with a friendly smile and giving him thumbs-up for the shooting, the latter chuckled cutely, Nino noted, but now Sakurai was looking at him with an enigmatic look. Nino tried not to think about it and before he followed Ikuta, he said goodbye to the man too, telling him that he did an acceptable job today and he would contact him for more. Sakurai thanked Nino but he didn't smile at him. Nino didn't like that.

\- + -

"It was really fascinating to see a professional photographer doing his work, Ninomiya-san. I can see why Sho is fascinated by you," Ikuta said, smiling at Nino as they clinked glasses (coke, not beer, since there was still work ahead) and waited for their food in a nearby ramen shop.

"Ah, the admiring thing?" Nino asked after taking a big sip of his coke, wetting his throat. He frowned a little, thinking about the meeting with Sakurai from the previous day. "He told me but honestly, I don't get it. Do you?"

The office worker nodded slowly. "I think he sees someone in you he wants to become. Someone who's… free?"

"Free?"

"Sorry, I may be lacking a better word," Ikuta chuckled. "You're just... the complete opposite of Sho, I think."

Nino continued drinking, letting his thoughts wander. It's true, he and Sakurai didn't seem to have much in common. But nevertheless, Nino couldn't really get why he should be a role model for another person. Sakurai didn't know him, his quirks, his weaknesses, apparently he only saw a cool and relaxed photographer in him, a person that even Nino himself wasn't sure if he really was.

"Ikuta-san? I have one question," the man then asked, putting down his glass.

"What can I do for you, Ninomiya-san?"

"About Sakurai. Something I just can’t get out of my head…," the photographer then continued. "I agree with you that he and I seem to be completely different. But I can't help but wonder… What exactly is his problem? He seems to be respected by his colleagues, even if he's clumsy, they even seem to adore it and are willing to help him out whenever they can. You're not different, right?"

Ikuta nodded again, following Nino's argument. "As expected from a photographer, you kept a really close eye on the situation and captured the problem well. It's true, he seems to be the one having the biggest problem with his personality."

Nino continued, his look wondering. "Judging from his shy behaviour and his insecurity, I thought he's probably getting bullied at work or something like that but that's obviously not the case..."

"We all honestly respect him and his abilities," Ikuta smiled. "He might not look like it, but he's very capable for most parts of his job."

"Most parts?"

"He's a great researcher and has a very good eye for details. He can write fantastic reports, he's creative and efficient, he comes up with great business solutions," Ikuta used his fingers to count down all of Sakurai's strengths and yes, Nino was seriously surprised to hear all this. Then, the man became a bit reluctant. "But… he can't convey his ideas properly. When he's in a meeting, he becomes so nervous he starts stammering and can't present his results at all. Recently he asked his assistant to do that for him and it works but it's definitely not the best solution."

"Why is that?" Nino wonders seriously. "If he's capable of his job, shouldn't he be confident about it? Where does this nervousness come from?"

After taking another sip of his coke, Ikuta looked at Nino, meaningfully. "I think he's having a complex towards his brother."

Nino blinked. "His brother?"

"I'm sure; you read the name of our company, right?" Ikuta asked and Nino nodded.

"Red Blossom Trading Ltd.," he stated simply, earning a nod from the other man.

"The name is inspired from the name "Sakurai" – Sho's father is the founder and owner of the business," Ikuta continued and Nino awed in realization. "He retired a few months ago and handed his business over to one of his sons. Sho's twin brother, Shu."

"Wait," Nino stopped the other to catch up. "You mean, Shu and Sho, although they are twins… only Shu was handed the business and Sho is... - sorry – stuck in that department as a normal employee, even under your supervision?"

Ikuta nodded. "Exactly."

"Oh crap...," the photographer said, brushing his hand through his hair. "I guess, that must have been a bummer for Sakurai... Sho I mean," he added quickly.

"On the one hand it was and on the other hand, it wasn't at all since he wasn't surprised," Ikuta said and when he saw Nino's confused look, he chuckled. "I have to go a bit back in the story to explain that..."

"Well, we still have some time," Nino said, surprised about how eager he was to learn more about that man's background.

The two men were interrupted for a moment as their bowls of chicken ramen were served. The smell was absolutely delicious but they set them aside a bit to cool and so Ikuta continued.

"Shu is just a few minutes older than Sho but he was always treated as the older brother by the family. He has a very strong personality while Sho has always been the shy one. Shu used to be the brother good at everything, school, sports, he had lots of friends. Sho was good too, at school but compared to his brother, he was always a step behind, had always been in his shadow," the man told, Nino's eyes glued on him, listening carefully. "Sho once told me that he got used to his brother always being the one doing everything, getting everything. He got used to being his brother's ghost, but I think his confidence suffered a lot from that and since the company got passed to Shu, it has become worse."

"As I thought," Nino murmured, letting his look drop to his ramen bowl. And now, Sakurai wanted to change...

"I think Shu didn't get favoured just because he's the older one, but he overtook Sho's position due to his open-mindedness and strong attitude which are essential in dealing with all the business partners and clients as the representative of the company. I was present when Sakurai-san – the father – handed over his position. Those were his words. He was full of pride for his son Shu but he didn't even dare to look at Sho, nor did he say a single word about Sho's achievements, about what Sho's hard work means for the company... nothing," Ikuta sighed. "Now Shu is the big boss and Sho… yeah… he's still in his brother's shadow, struggling."

"So that's why he wants to overcome his shyness," Nino sums up. "He wants to overtake his brother and become the boss of his father's company?"

Ikuta reached for his wooden chopsticks, breaking them apart and started eating, nodding in Nino's direction to make him do the same. After a first taste and praising the ramen soup, he continued.

"No, I don't think that his motives are of a competitive nature, at least not solely. I just think that since he's still suffering from his own flaws, he finally wants to get rid of them," the man explained before flashing Nino a sincere smile. "And I think he wants to make his father proud too, even if he's not fit to become the company's CEO."

Nino didn't reply, his mouth stuffed with delicious ramen noodles, as he slurped them up. He had to admit, he admired Sakurai a little bit. If what Ikuta told him just now was the truth, he admired him. Sakurai has decided to take the necessary steps to change, to break from the shadows others pushed him into and in which he had been living for so long now already. It must have taken him a lot of courage and determination to find this decision and to take the first step. Suddenly, Nino remembered again the scene in the elevator from Monday. How Sakurai had been standing behind him, had tried to talk to him. It must have cost him so much courage to try talking to a stranger...

"I have to admit, I'm very proud of him that he made this decision and took this step," Ikuta said warmly. "As his friend, I only hope the best for him and want to support him as much as I can. I think this model project is a pretty cool thing and that it might really help him in overcoming his shyness. Please take care of him."

Nino slurped up some noodles again before he nodded slightly, making a humming sound. Yes, he thought, determined, even if he still didn't really care about winning this stupid bet with Jun, he would give his best. He would give his best to support that shy clumsy man too and try to help him find a better version of himself.

TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since someone asked in the comments when I posted chapter 2 for the first time, here's a before and after comparison of Sho:


	4. Chapter 4

Never before have so many files from a photoshoot landed in the bin of Nino's desktop as when he was going through the pictures he took at Red Blossom Trading Ltd.

As sorry as he felt about this process each time, it was unavoidable, especially when a model wasn't experienced and couldn't pull off what was expected for the pictures from the start. Nino had shown a huge amount of patience during that last shooting with Sakurai, he told himself, but in the end, thanks to Ikuta's awesome idea of combining the office shooting with food, which turned out to be a welcomed coffee and doughnut break for everyone, he did it. He finished the "work" shooting for his and Jun's photo challenge and even if tons of pictures were crap, he found out that there was also a bunch of very nice ones among them.

"That one looks really good," a voice behind Nino said, startling him.

As the photographer turned around, he found his boss, Tacky, leaning slightly over his shoulders, one of his charming smiles dancing on his lips. His eyes were glued on a picture showing in Nino's editing software at that moment – the photo he took when Sakurai received his decaf the other day, pleasantly surprised over what came out as Nino's consideration of his fidgeting personality. Nino was still amazed how Sakurai could even interpret this as nice, but apparently, people considered it as a nice gesture rather than a hidden critique and maybe Nino should just let it stay like that.

"He has a gorgeous smile," Tacky pointed out, smirking. "I thought you said something about a creepy clown grin that gave you nightmares."

"Well...," Nino blushed slightly as he looked at the picture again. His favourite of the whole shooting. "I told you he can smile. But it works better if it comes naturally. He's still shit in posing and yeah... let's say it wasn't easy."

Tacky took one of the chairs nearby and sat down, rolling it next to Nino, asking him to show him a few more pictures from the photoshoot. Nino complied so they clicked through the selection of photos which the photographer thought were the best ones.

The one with Sakurai's decaf-smile. Another one in which he was holding the phone receiver between his head and shoulder while leaning backwards in his chair and handing a file to a colleague. Some – according to Nino – adorably cute pics of Sakurai stuffing his face with doughnuts while typing busily on his keyboard, frowning seriously, and a couple more. Nino couldn't help but watch Tacky's reaction, curiously, his heart was unwillingly beating a bit faster. He was always happy to earn some constructive critique from his boss, who had such natural talent as a photographer that you would always learn something new when working together, and Nino had to admit, with this challenge in the form of Sakurai, he would need every single hint and tip he could get.

To Nino's relief, Tacky seemed to like the pictures; at least the amused smile on his face told him that. After checking all the pictures, his boss turned at him.

"What do you think?" Tacky asked, a typical trait of him – asking the actual creator of the pictures for his impression first before giving his professional opinion about it.

"I... I like them," Nino said, trying not to blush.

"I can see that," Tacky chuckled, causing the other man to frown a bit confused. "Ah, keep on, I'm sorry."

Nino didn't really know why but he became nervous suddenly, talking about the pictures.

"There are only a few usable pics but I think we have kind of improved," he continued carefully. "Your idea with the natural environment helping to make Sakurai open up worked," he finished, staring at the picture of Sakurai's incredible photogenic smile again.

Tacky nodded, satisfied. "I think it's a nice idea to combine the work with the break, it gives the whole thing a little less strict feeling but makes it still very realistic and relatable. You captured some really nice shots there. I can see that you two worked together. The model – Sakurai he's called, you said?"

Nino nodded. "Sakurai Sho. From Red Blossom Trading Ltd."

"He still looks a bit stiff, but it's much better compared to the test shot you showed me. If you work with the program to change the colours a bit here and there, blur some things in the background a bit more, play with the focus and such… I'm convinced the outcome will be nice," his boss said, starting to click through the pictures again and pointing at a few things that might need editing, giving Nino some very welcomed tips.

Nin nodded again, already editing the pictures in his mind to become the best possible.

"However," Tacky concluded. "Before you get completely drowned in your task here, please don't forget you have an event shooting at 4 pm."

Hurriedly, Nino opened his digital planner to go through his appointments. Indeed, there was a filed note for a photo shoot from 4 to 7 pm at a publishing company, as Nino was hired to capture the pictures of a press conference and a follow up meet and greet held by a popular writer.

"Oh crap, I almost forgot!" the man cursed as he checked the clock at the bottom right of his computer screen and found that it was 3:25 pm already. Considering the time it would take him to get to the publishing company, he better hurry.

"I'm off then!" he said, closing his laptop and grabbing his camera bag and a new SD card.

"Take care and do a good job!" Tacky waved after him with a smile as Nino stormed outside.

"Always," Nino smirked as he burst out the door.

\- + -

If Nino thought that his job with Sakurai was difficult, he didn't want to be in Jun's shoes. Apparently, Ohno was quite a handful to handle and according to Aiba's reports about the progress of Jun's shootings with the painter, Jun was already at the edge of losing his nerves.

The photographer barely made it to hand in his pictures from the "work" shooting of which Tacky had demanded results by the end of the week. Nino couldn't help but notice the dark circles around his colleague's eyes on Friday morning. Aiba told him that they came from Jun staying up all night editing the pictures of Ohno painting in the streets and the frustrating task of choosing some satisfying pictures.

The setting had been great and the items that the painter used - canvas, various paint and brushes, sketchbooks and the like - made the photographs looking interesting and colourful, but it had been a pain in the ass to capture Ohno with an appealing look on his face. In fact, the painter apparently looked very focused while working – when he didn't look like he was about to fall asleep -, as Aiba named it carefully.

Focused seemingly was a code word for "having a frown knitted on his face, parting his lips and sticking out his chin in an awkward way". Nino convinced himself about that when he was finally able to look at some of Jun's pictures too in the small meeting which Tacky had called the two photographers to in order for them to hand in their results from the first shooting.

Honestly, Nino had a hard time trying not to burst into laughter. In fact, if this wasn't such a crucial situation for Jun, he really would have laughed at the silly expression on Ohno's face. He definitely looked amusing. But admittedly, Nino wouldn't call that funny face useful for Jun's purposes. Despite his obvious struggles with patience and a model that would need a lot of patience when working with him, Jun wouldn't admit to it though. He preferred to drop a few hateful comments about Nino and his own struggles with his "stalker model", but Nino couldn't help but feel a bit satisfied with the fact that his choice for a model caused his colleague troubles. It was like a little payback for all the teasing he had to endure from Jun.

Against all odds, Jun couldn't wait to receive the next topic to work on, which would be announced by Tacky at the end of their "project overview meeting". Jun's willingness to work hard and win this competition was still there and as strong as before and Nino had to admit he admired him a bit for his passion. He himself had just started to adjust to the idea of probably becoming the successor of the "Blue Hour"'s owner – even if he doubted he would be able to win against his colleague – but Jun was definitely on fire to get the job.

"So the next topic will be...," Tacky started, switching looks between his year-long employees as if he wanted to make it thrilling (causing Nino to roll his eyes and Jun to stand on his toes, impatiently), "Outdoor!"

Jun blinked, his excitedly fisted hands were loosening their grip. He turned to Nino, wondering. "Did he just say "outdoor"?"

Nino nodded slowly.

"Just to mention," Jun then said, facing their boss again. "I just did an outdoor shooting with that guy, even if the topic was "work", since he practically works on the streets. Can't we -"

"Combine it with spare time. Hobbies. Something like that," Tacky added quickly. "So the complete opposite of the previous topic. Be creative!"

"I see...," Jun murmured, sitting back and crossing his arms, apparently starting to think about it.

"Alright, the deadline is next Friday morning, that should be plenty," Tacky said with a broad smile. "And don't forget your other duties. By the way, Nino, the publishing company from the other day called me after they received your photos, they said they are very satisfied with your work."

Nino nodded thankfully.

"However, they would appreciate a bit more communication next time, for better coordination during the shooting and such... you know what I mean."

Nino sighed. Yes, he knew exactly what Tacky meant. He knew his weak points. And he was working on them.

\- + -

"That sounds pretty nice, outdoor shooting, doesn't it?" Nino's best friend asked a few hours later as the two were sitting together on the small balcony of the photo studio, cups of coffee in their hands.

Nino turned to Aiba, frowning. He didn't look as excited as his friend. "I don't even know what I should do with Sakurai outdoor... I'm certainly not going hiking with him or anything, just to clarify."

"Did you ask him what kind of outdoor activities he likes?" Aiba suggested, earning a shaking of Nino's head. "You should probably call him and find out."

Nino wasn't the type for phone calls, but he picked up his friend's suggestion and pulled out his cell phone to type a message to Sakurai's LINE. He didn't expect an immediate reply and so he stuffed his phone inside of his pocket again, finished his coffee and waved goodbye to Aiba as he headed for his last job before the start of the weekend – a family portrait shooting.

As expected, Nino didn't receive any reply from Sakurai before the late evening – he just hoped that Sakurai didn't actually sit at work until such a freaking late hour – and he was already at home, sitting comfortably on his couch and playing some games. Right next to him on the side stand there was an empty paper box of Chinese delivery food and a can of cool beer, the perfect Friday evening according to Nino's standards.

"Shut up, Sally!" Nino barked when his cell phone informed him about an incoming message, disturbing his concentration when he was busy with slaying the big boss of his current fantasy role play game.

Once he finished the fight – winning over the big boss of course, even if he almost died - Nino checked his phone. Sakurai's message was already almost 30 minutes old and to Nino's surprise, it was pretty long.

"Good evening, Ninomiya-san and thank you very much for your message. Thank you for your hard work with the last shooting. So the next topic is "outdoor"? Sounds very interesting," the message started and Nino almost rolled his eyes on the flat politeness that underlined the message. Well, this was standard between people who only worked together, probably. He continued reading. "To be honest, I have a lot of outdoor hobbies, I like hiking," as Nino predicted it..., "going on vacation in general for sightseeing and when I was younger I used to play soccer. I was pretty bad though so I always had to sit on the bench when my club was participating in a match... does this help? Have a nice evening! Sakurai"

There was a sad LINE sticker added at the end of the message and Nino couldn't help but smile sympathetically. He didn't only find the image of a clumsy Sakurai trying to play soccer amusing, he also remembered the times when he as a kid had been interested in baseball but used to be sick pretty often and so he never made it into a team's match either. He recalled the feeling he experienced back then, sitting on the bench on the side of the baseball field, watching his comrades. It sucked and Nino felt a bit sad for Sakurai having experienced something similar.

Nino let his thoughts wander for a while, thinking about what kind of things they could do for the shooting. As he told Aiba already, hiking was out of the question. Too exhausting and it would eat too much time, especially when they had to try fit the shooting into both of their work schedules. There was no time for vacations and he didn't intend to embarrass Sakurai by forcing him to play soccer, either. So probably, something in a nearby park would be more realistic. He went through the few options that popped up his head and then reached for his phone again, checking his work schedule before typing a reply.

"What about meeting at the park near work and try a few small things? I'll bring along a few tools, badminton rackets, a small picnic, stuff like that. If you have any items at home that you find fitting for the shooting, please feel free to bring them along, maybe we can use them. How about Tuesday or Wednesday around 5 – 6 pm, would that be too early for you?"

Nino was surprised by how detailed his reply was, but he was satisfied with it and hit the send button. Shortly after, Sakurai's reply came.

"Tuesday at 5 is fine, I think I can leave a bit earlier that day. Let's meet at the huge oak tree in the middle of the park."

"Alright, works for me," Nino began his reply, then he thought about what he could add further. He smirked. "Try to wear something stylish." He added a sticker of a winking cat boy.

"Understood! Good Night!"

"Have a nice weekend."

"You too."

\- + -

Nino was relieved that despite his instructions to Sakurai, he still had asked Aiba to come along to the "outdoor shooting", his styling stuff in tow. Alongside with Suzu as Nino's assistant for today's shooting, camera equipment and some spare time stuff (including the promised picnic, provided and self-made by Suzu herself), the group of three went to the nearby park after work. When they approached the huge oak tree that Sakurai chose as their meeting spot, the businessman was already there. He seemed to be waiting underneath the tree and as soon as he spotted Nino and the others, he jumped up, waved at them a bit shyly and came closer.

Seeing Sakurai's interpretation of "stylish outdoor clothes" was a horrifying image and Nino felt the urge to beat up the clerk in the clothes store who sold Sakurai the ugliest outfit in the galaxy. Frustrated, Nino covered his eyes at the sight of the man walking towards them – even if Sakurai's smile might have been worth a look, his inner voice teased him – and sighed heavily.

"Aiba, please... Please do something with this... accident," Nino begged, not knowing how else he should describe this crime to his eyes. "His fashion sense is worse than mine and that means something!"

Aiba chuckled amused at his friend's reaction, but he certainly agreed with him. The combination of black and neon orange striped shorts and an oversized neon green tank top decorated with one of those lame and terribly wrong English phrases was enough to make everyone's eyes bleed.

Faster than Sakurai could properly greet the others, Aiba was there with his miracle suitcase and dragged the man along, behind the huge oak tree. Just a few minutes later as they returned, Sakurai was dressed in some comfortable baggy indigo jeans, sandals and a  
Khaki coloured t-shirt with white lettering – the name of an American college and a year – which looked way better than the horrible outfit from Sakurai's closet.

Aiba, of course, had also taken care of Sakurai's hair and had confiscated his glasses, even if Nino could already hear the man complain about that and even saw him stumble over – what, grass? – as they came closer again. As much as Nino was amazed by the wonders Aiba did to that man, he seriously wasn't sure if letting Sakurai play Badminton without glasses would be such a great idea. What if he got hurt or broke some of the camera equipment?

"Now you look ready for a casual photoshoot," Nino addressed the other nonetheless.

Sakurai blushed and rubbed his neck sheepishly. "Aiba-san told me to burn my clothes..."

Nino chuckled automatically. "That will be for the best, believe me."

"I'm sorry, I'm seriously not good with fashion," the other man replied.

"That's OK," Nino said, his tone sounding much smoother than intended. Didn't he plan to throw another sneaky comment at the man? Instead, he murmured, "Don't worry, that's why I brought Aiba along," his lips curled up in a smile.

When Sakurai answered with a smile himself, relieved that the photographer didn't scold him or grumbled at him or something, Nino swallowed hard. His hands started shaking slightly and so he tightened the grip around his already prepared camera a little. He cleared his throat and turned away from Sakurai and towards Suzu and Aiba to give a few instructions about how to place the shooting equipment like the portable reflector they brought along and a few other details.

Then, when Nino dared to turn around again and found Sakurai daydreaming, he quickly lifted his camera to snap a first, surprising picture of his model. He smirked to himself as he checked the picture on which he had caught Sakurai completely off guard, just standing there in his – now – fashionable clothes and taking in the nature around him while waiting for the photographer to get ready.

"Sakurai, did you bring along something too for the shooting?" Nino asked, honestly more to distract himself than being curious about what it could be if he did. Probably, Sakurai brought work along, or a book or something nerdy like that.

"Uhm… yeah, I made some snacks… for the picnic."

Or something to eat. Nino should have known. He smirked without noticing.

"Oh, that's nice! Show us!" Aiba said, enthusiastically.

Sakurai stumbled towards the oak tree where his briefcase and a backpack were rested and started rummaging through the backpack until he pulled out a big box. He came back, his face blushed cutely and obviously, he was nervous.

"I'm not a talented cook so…," the man started before he lifted the cover and exposed a few fist-sized chunks of rice and whatever else it was that he threw in there.

Nino frowned, blinked, tilted his head and frowned even more before he lifted his face to meet Sakurai's big eyes.

"What the hell is that?" he asked, seriously confused.

"Onigiri?" Sakurai offered insecurely, blushing even more and Nino, accompanied by Aiba and Suzu who didn't look less confused than he did, lowered their gazes onto the content of the box again.

"Onigiri," Nino repeated in disbelief staring at the supposed-to-be rice balls.

Indeed, when he looked closely, he could spot some seaweed, sesame and even some red spots that he assumed to be plums, but everything was extremely out of shape.

"We can't use them in the pictures," the photographer then stated, bluntly. "They look like you threw them out of the window and scratched them from the streets."

His lips still parted, he was ready to find some other – in his opinion very accurate – comparisons to the mess in front of him, but then, Nino's eyes met Sakurai's again and he stopped immediately. He saw the hurt in the other man's eyes and it made him immediately regret what he just said.

"I see…," Sakurai murmured, trying to smile, but his smile didn't reach his eyes.

Nino felt a slight sting in his heart and then, his words left his mouth faster than expected. "Ah… Sakurai, look, don't be sad... I'm sure even if it looks horrible; it must still taste great, no?" he shrugged, offering a crooked smile.

As to verify his assumption, Nino lifted his hand and took a chunk of rice with a piece of seaweed, standing on edge – almost dropping it because it was in fact too big for his small hands – and before Sakurai could stop him, he took a large bite of it.

As soon as he began to chew, his face changed, from curious and expectant to first neutral, then - something different. He frowned and stopped chewing for a second, as if he was thinking about if he should even continue, then he tried again, slower this time but the more he chewed, the more he cringed until his face looked completely disgusted and he held up his hand to cover his mouth.

"Oh my gosh, what?" Nino murmured, looking down, trying to finish his bite despite the hellish taste. He had no idea what exactly Sakurai put in there to make the simple rice balls taste so bad – too much rice vinegar for sure but he just could not define the other spices in there - but no matter what it is, he didn't want to ever try it again.

"I'm sorry," Sakurai said in a low voice, cringing himself. "I told you I'm not the best cook!"

With a pained look, Nino looked up again in the man's direction. "You didn't tell me that you are the worst cook!" he said from behind his hand, his mouth still half full – for some reason, it just didn't want to get lesser.

Sakurai reached out his hand to the photographer, slightly touching his arm, his expression worried.

"Just… just spit it out, OK? It's fine, I'm not mad or anything, I know it must taste bad."

But Nino didn't spit it out and just continued chewing.

"Bad? Seriously, I could assume you wanted to poison me with that!"

"Definitely not!" Sakurai insisted.

"Then why did you bring that along?!" Nino dumped the rest of his rice ball back into Sakurai's box, not bothering about it any longer.

"I… I just… I just wanted to provide something too," the man said, discouraged. "I'm sorry. It's useless, isn't it?"

Nino almost felt sorry for his horrible reaction, especially when he pictured Sakurai standing in a kitchen, trying his best to make something for the photoshoot, but seriously, he could have been the best actor and still wouldn't be able to pretend that it was tasty.

"Please, take that box away, I feel kind of sick…"

"I'm so sorry, Ninomiya-san! Really!" Sakurai said again, putting the box' cover back on top.

"OK, OK," Nino nodded. "Just… oh ugh…," he turned around to face his friend. "Aiba? Water!"

Thankfully, the stylist – as usual – had a small bottle of water on hand, very thoughtful indeed, and handed it to his friend with an amused smile. "Here you go."

After sending his friend a death glare, Nino murmured his thanks and put the opened bottle against his lips. While he swallowed some of the water and tried to get rid of the strange taste in his mouth, Sakurai went away to store his box back inside his backpack. Aiba in the meantime laughed heartily, not to Nino's elation.

"What's so funny, Aiba?" he frowned grumpily as he handed the water bottle back and brushed his arm over his lips to catch some water drops. Sakurai, who just returned to the group, gave the stylist a questioning look too.

"I'm sorry," Aiba said between two chuckles. "It's just… Sakurai-san, you have to know that Nino is a really picky eater usually. It's very uncommon for him to even taste… - sorry, no offence – something like that. I just thought it's cute of him."

Nino arched an eyebrow. "Cute?! Watch your mouth, Aiba, I warn you!"

"Ohhh? That's really nice, you wanted to cheer Sakurai-san up, didn't you?" Suzu chimed in. "Even if you failed."

"I…," Nino blushed deeply, looking everywhere but in Sakurai's direction. "Well, I didn't want our model to feel bad and out of the mood for the shooting. That's all."

When he heard a soft chuckle coming from the said model, he slightly turned his head.

"Thank you, Ninomiya-san," Sakurai said sheepishly. "I really appreciate your thoughts."

Nino averted his look again, stomping a few steps away to bring some distance between him and Sakurai and to bring his camera back into position. After clearing his throat, he pointed at Suzu, throwing her a meaningful look.

"Suzu, the picnic basket," he ordered.

The apprentice quickly reached for said item and the picnic blanket, which they had brought along – of course matching the colours of the outfit Aiba had chosen for Sakurai.

"Now get ready, Sakurai, we don't have the whole evening, the sun is already starting to set."

Which by the way made the hair of the man glow in the most beautiful hair colour Nino had ever seen, but he didn't say that out loud, of course.

Sakurai's eyes became as big as wheels at the sight of Suzu's homemade picnic basket, filled with whatever delicious treats one could think of. There were sweet and salty snacks, sandwiches, real onigiri, egg rolls, salad, fruits, and cookies, it was awesome. When the man questioned if he was allowed to really eat all those things, Suzu just giggled and nodded her head, turning around, flashing Nino a smile.

The latter had already started taking pictures of Sakurai's reaction. He was literally glued behind his camera, snapping pictures here and there, of Sakurai gaping at the food, Sakurai trying the food, enjoying the food, literally almost dying over the food. He took pictures of Sakurai as he was lying on the picnic blanket with a book in hands – which he had indeed brought along by himself – and snacking on a cookie while pushing his glasses back up his nose.

Nino loved the picture the moment he took it because it showed both, a very intellectual as well as a cute side of Sakurai and the mixture made it just adorable. His heart fluttered a little at the imagination of joining the man on the picnic blanket on a warm summer evening like this, maybe reading a book too or gaming a bit with his Nintendo DS while simply hanging out together. He would probably take little breaks just to watch the man flicking some cookie crumbs off the pages of his book with an adorable frown on his face while he murmured something about his own clumsiness. And maybe, Sakurai would let him taste one of the cookies too, not that Nino was such a big fan of sweets but if Sakurai would feed him…

Nino shook his head instantly. What the hell was he thinking?!

He backed off a little in surprise when Sakurai was suddenly staring at him. It was just then, when the photographer remembered that Sakurai technically couldn't look into his eyes since the camera's lens was between them (why did Nino feel like the stalker now?! This was his job, damn it). He tried to calm his suddenly raised heartbeat down and instead – like the professional he was supposed to be - used the rare opportunity of Sakurai actually looking into the camera, to take another few pictures, even getting closer, down on his knees, rubbing through the grass to find the best angle.

"Smile, Sakurai," Nino said in a low voice and surprisingly, Sakurai did, small cookie crumbles decorating his lips.

Nino, elbows on the ground, sighed. This was killing him. So. Adorable. He took a deep breath, lowered his camera and looked straight at the man, pointing with the tip of his finger at his own lips at the respective spot to make him aware of the crumb. Sakurai raised his eyebrows until he got the hint and raised his hand to brush away the crumb, blushing nicely and chuckling slightly. Automatically, Nino mirrored the gesture and for a few seconds, the two men just smiled at each other, a little silly, until the photographer heard the voice of his friend behind him who pulled him out of the strange atmosphere.

"I don't want to disturb whatever kind of secret photographer – model communication you two are exchanging here but Nino, the sun… didn't you want to take some pictures of Sakurai and Suzu playing Badminton before it gets too dark?" Aiba asked and Nino immediately jumped up, nodding heavily at his friend.

After clearing his throat, Nino said, "Good point, Aiba, good point," and moved back a little, away from Sakurai...

Then, he picked up two badminton rackets to hand them over to Suzu and gestured her to go play with Sakurai. He and Aiba quickly put away the picnic blanket and the basket – much to Sakurai's dislike who still looked at some of the snacks, longing, until Suzu laughed and told him he could take home the leftovers if he wanted, which earned her a big smile. While Sakurai and Suzu practised a few exchanges with their sports equipment, Nino set the reflector right and cleaned the lens of his camera, murmuring something to Camelot that nobody else was able to hear, before he himself was ready again.

"Nino?" Aiba asked, putting a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Is everything OK?"

"Eh?" Nino whirled around, looking into Aiba's worried face. "Ah, sure, everything OK, why?"

"Just wondering," Aiba smiled softly. "So, let's keep on!"

The shooting of the small badminton match was fun, so much fun! Of course, Sakurai was pretty clumsy, he managed to lose the racket while serving the ball which ended flying through the air, turning in a loop and hitting Sakurai's head when falling down – but thankfully he didn't get hurt. One time, he tripped over his own feet and almost crashed into the reflector Aiba was holding close to the two players.

Nino shouted a few instructions, and he was surprised himself that despite Sakurai's disability he didn't lose his nerves with him, like the first and the second time when they did a photo shooting. He was too busy though, to even start wondering why this could be and just kept taking pictures and giving instructions.

In the middle of the shooting, suddenly, a golden retriever came running along, jumping up at Sakurai and causing the man to fall down onto the soft grass. It took the owner of the dog a few more seconds to run after him and the young woman tried her best to get "Finnick" away from Sakurai but apparently, the dog seemed to like the man a lot and continued licking him all over his face, making him laugh and cry for help at the same time.

Those pictures were amazing, Nino thought, immediately asking Finnick's owner for permission to use the pictures featuring her dog, on which she proudly agreed, of course. A few shots later, Nino seemed to be satisfied with the result and declared the shooting over.

However, in the end, before going home, and when the sun was down, with only the streetlamps that were placed all over the park lighting up the place, Nino and Aiba ended up joining one last short badminton match too, much to Nino's own surprise. It has been ages since he played that kind of game and he sucked big – even if it was not as much as Sakurai – but it was surprisingly fun. He couldn't remember when was the last time he laughed so much as during this evening, and the others laughed a lot too.

It felt good, really good, to hear his friends' laughter, it was rare for Suzu to let her emotions out so much and it was always good to hear Aiba's typical chuckles and his excited yells. And if the photographer learned something this evening, it was that Sakurai's laughter was the most adorable of all.

When the four of them had exhausted completely and dropped onto the soft grass, laughing, Nino's heart was beating like crazy from the exercise. He stretched all fours as much as he could until his arm accidentally brushed against Sakurai's, who was lying next to him. Nino retreated quickly, snapping his head to the side to look at the other, who did the same impulsively, but unlike the photographer, he didn't look shocked but continued laughing.

Sakurai rolled on his side then, to face Nino better, and with a huge smile on his face, he said, "Ninomiya-san, seriously, this was the most fun I had in years!"

The man rolled back on his back then, letting out this incredible hearty laughter again that reached deep into Nino's heart, preventing it from slowing down the rapid beating, even though his breath has settled and the exhaustion ebbed down.

Charming, Nino thought. So. Charming.

Damned.

Before Nino's thoughts could get carried away to places he was afraid to visit in his inner world, a cell phone rang – Aiba's apparently, judging from the happy tune - and Nino got pulled out of his mind immediately.

"Ah, Jun," Aiba breathed into the phone after he picked up. "Yes, we're finished here, we just played one last round Badminton, it was so much fun, you should have been here! I'm almost on my way home. Shall I fetch something from the conbini?... Oh, you're already cooking?! Awesome! I'll hurry!"

Nino chuckled when his friend jumped up excitedly on the premise of returning home to home-cooked dinner by his beloved boyfriend, and he sat up himself. He thought he felt Sakurai's eyes on him, which made him a bit nervous and confused, but he ignored it.

"Aiba, I know you're eager to get home but do you mind giving me a ride?" Nino asked quickly before his friend could storm off, as he remembered that Aiba came to work by car this morning.

"Ah, sure, your apartment is almost on the way anyway," his friend gave him a thumbs-up that Nino returned gratefully.

\- + -

"Ne, Aiba...," Nino murmured in a low voice next to the man as the car came to halt in front of a red traffic light. He wasn't even sure if his friend heard him.

"What is it, Nino?"

OK, apparently, he did.

"Uhm...," the photographer started, a little caught in surprise, wondering if and how he should put his question. He lowered his look onto his fingers that absentmindedly played with the straps of his camera bag placed on his lap. "Do you... think he is... I don't know... attractive?"

"You mean... Sakurai?" Aiba asked, turning to his friend who bit his lower lip slightly and hoped his cheeks didn’t turn as red as they felt. "He's great on pictures when he doesn’t do that creepy smile or a strange pose, right?"

"He… improved, I think," Nino said, trying to sound nonchalant.

Aiba didn't say anything more, but instead, he smiled slightly and then answered properly. "From my viewpoint as a stylist, I can say that he is definitely a handsome man. His fashion sense is very questionable, and he needs a little help to make something out of him, but he's definitely attractive."

"I see," Nino sighed, somehow a little relieved. So it wasn't just him. "Everyone would think so, right?"

"Probably, but...," apparently, Aiba couldn't keep the question to himself any longer. "What makes you ask that?"

"Eh?" Nino snapped his head into Aiba's direction who grinned at him. "Nothing," he blurted out, maybe a little too suspiciously. "I mean... I just wondered. From an objective point of view, if people might find him attractive."

Aiba smirked and Nino averted his eyes, blushing. He wasn't sure if Aiba caught up with his train of thoughts that he himself wasn't able to understand properly yet.

"Then... from an objective point of view," his friend pulled the car over the crossing as the light turned green and Nino was grateful that Aiba's attention was now focused on the street again instead of him. "Do you find him attractive?"

Nino considered his options for a few seconds before replying and then he said, "Well, objectively speaking... yes."

"Thought so," Aiba chuckled. "But say, isn't he kind of your type?"

Nino frowned. "I don't have a type, Aiba," he replied.

But he wondered if this was true. It had been so long since Nino's last crush, not even talking about a relationship, or even his last encounter with a potential date, that he seriously couldn't remember.

"Well, I think people who aren't fake and can smile sincerely are everyone's type," his friend replied, amused.

Nino didn't answer. Aiba probably had said everything that could be said about this topic and he didn't want to dig deeper.

TBC


	5. Chapter 5

Tackey really liked Jun and Nino's results from the outdoor shootings. No. He loved them.

With a slightly increased heartbeat and a bit of pride swelling in his chest, Nino handed in his favourite pictures at the next meeting which had been scheduled on Friday morning. Jun looked a bit more stressed than Nino, but his pictures looked great. It seemed like he went on a fishing trip together with Ohno (and Aiba) since this was apparently the painter's favourite thing besides painting, and Jun bragged about how skilled the other was while fishing, how chilled and relaxed and how beautiful the weather had been on that boat and whatnot...

If he tried to make Nino jealous, it didn't work. It wasn't only because Nino usually wasn't the jealous type, but this time it was also because Nino didn't care about fishing trips or boats at all. In fact, he hated boats. Too much unpredictable strange movement that made his stomach feel sick, a too salty and fishy smell all around and he didn't even want to think about the sun high in the sky and the potential heatstroke that might come from it.

He jokingly asked Jun if he got heatstroke since this would possibly explain his snotty attitude, but Jun ignored him. Anyway, the play of the light on the water, the sun on the relaxed face of Ohno or the surprising enthusiasm on his face when he caught a fish, all that, Jun had caught with his camera perfectly, as expected from a photographer with his talent, and Nino couldn't help but accept and admire that.

He himself didn't talk much about the shooting in the park. Aiba had probably told Jun some things anyway, since Aiba tended to talk about everything and anything with Jun. Nino instead was definitely the type who preferred to cherish his memories by himself. And that evening was truly a memory worth cherishing (except the memory of Sakurai's failed onigiri, probably, that was truly horrible and Nino hoped to forget about it soon). This time, he definitely didn't have to throw as many pictures into his virtual bin, therefore, this time it was much harder to decide which were the best shots and to limit the number in order not to submit too many to the challenge.

Nino even sent one of the pictures to Sakurai via LINE in advance on the day after the shooting. Sakurai had texted him back enthusiastically, repeating over and over his surprise on how good he looked in that picture (it was the one with him reading a book while crumbling around with a cookie, the one that Nino liked so much) and enforcing how impressed he was by the photographer's skills to capture him like that. Nobody had ever captured him in such a good way, according to Sakurai. Apparently, he even questioned for a minute if the guy in the picture was really him.

Nino had laughed at that comment, his heart feeling warm, and then he sent another picture to Sakurai with the sarcastic comment "Don't get too carried away, Supermodel Sakurai Sho". It was one of the pictures he had sorted out but kept for himself – with Sakurai making a very silly face when he got "attacked" by the dog. Nino thought it was hilarious. Sakurai sent back a laughing LINE sticker, changed his contact picture from a cat pic (Sakurai's cat?) to the first photo Nino sent him (of course he asked for permission to use it) and the photographer went to bed with a smile on his face.

\- + -

The young man found himself thinking a lot on the following weekend, his thoughts revolving around Sakurai, Sakurai, and Sakurai again. He wasn't used to thinking about one specific person that much, especially not someone that he met – how often? - only three times (OK, four if you count that one time in the elevator) but he couldn't do anything about it. Not even gaming distracted him enough to keep his thoughts from that man and Nino seriously wondered why. Had he focused too much on this stupid challenge with Jun?

Still, he refused to believe that. He still didn't feel the wish to win over Jun (well, maybe just a little bit but more to make the other jealous than to win the position of Tacky's successor). So why the hell didn't Sakurai leave his thought?

Nino probably shouldn't shut himself in and spend all the time just with his houseplants and his thoughts, he assumed, because he felt like they were driving him crazy. He talked a lot more to his refrigerator, his electric kettle and his TV screen than usual and while watering his plants and flowers on Sunday morning, he found himself telling them the whole story of how he met that idiotically clumsy and shy businessman who became his model due to Jun's brilliant idea.

He also told them about how surprisingly fast and how much that idiot had improved during the last shooting and how incredibly beautiful his smile was but all of that didn't mean anything at all, of course. He was a photographer, someone with a creative job, he had an eye for beautiful things, that's probably all behind it.

He didn't need to feel ashamed to think that Sakurai was attractive or that he had a really nice natural smile, right? He often found people attractive during a shooting, even if… it was a first in a very long time that he became so nervous about it and the more he met Sakurai, the worse it became. Nino even joked about how Sakurai's nervousness seemed to magically swap with his own confidence and suspected a curse or a bad joke of destiny behind it. No, Nino wasn't the superstitious type but what else could it be? He was not falling in love with that man, definitely not!

...Right?

Wanda – Nino's water lily – of course, didn't answer.

Nino sighed deeply. He knew that most people found it a silly habit, but he liked talking to his things and plants. It kind of... relaxed him. Others might talk to friends, others might write into a diary, Nino told his home his stories. At least, he felt a little bit less awkward this way, comparing to his teenage days when he used to talk to himself instead. That would have been creepy, at times, so he had searched for an alternative. Talking to things might still not be the norm, but it made him feel better, so he didn't care.

The good thing about talking to things or plants was that they listened to him without talking back. They just swallowed Nino's sometimes surprisingly overflowing feelings and information without interrupting him, without judging him and without giving him any shallow tips or teasing comments, as his friends would do.

The bad thing about talking to things or plants was that they didn't give him any tips or even teasing comments, or a warm embarrassing hug, telling him that everything would be OK and that he didn't need to worry.

Sometimes, probably, Nino needed that. But he was weak in talking about his feelings to other people. He didn't know why, it just had always been this way and he had learned to live with it, somehow. It was probably the first time since centuries that Nino felt the slightest wish to talk to somebody about the whole thing – maybe Aiba, at least definitely not Jun or Shige – but for now, he didn't.

Nino sighed again and gave Wanda a bit more water.

\- + -

The next shooting's topic was something very interesting and challenging, Nino thought. It was "supernatural humanity" and the photo studio's boss requested something creative, refusing to give Jun any hints, no matter how much he demanded it.

"Be creative," Nino wittily said with an arched eyebrow and shrugged shoulders, earning a death glare by his colleague.

To be honest, Nino already had– which he thought - a pretty good idea for the photoshoot, his imagination was running wild. It wouldn't be something too fancy or too supernaturally but he hoped that Tacky would like his idea too. Despite his proud attitude, Jun tried to find out about Nino's idea (because he was convinced that he had one already, seeing the victorious smirk on his face) but of course, the photographer didn't reveal anything.

However, when Jun was gone for his next job, Nino approached Aiba and asked him if he could give him Ohno's cell phone number, which the other promptly did (because Aiba had just about every number people could think of, which was very useful at times) even if he looked at his friend curiously.

A few hours later Nino had coordinated a meeting with Sakurai as well as Ohno on Sunday, noting down the appointment into his calendar. Nino tried hard to ignore his heart jumped a little in excitement at the thought of seeing his model again soon.

No, he wasn't falling in love with that guy, definitely not.

\- + -

Despite Nino usually not being the jealous type, he had to admit that on Sunday he came pretty close to what other people would call "jealous", even if he didn't like it. Not at all. He didn't plan to become jealous, of course, and who might have thought that he would even have a reason to experience that shitty feeling?!

Nobody would have known. Nobody could have known how Ohno would mess around with Nino's feelings. The photographer didn't even know if the painter did it on purpose or not. Probably not, Nino didn't think that Ohno was a bad guy or that he was even paying any attention to know about Nino's… feelings for Sakurai (if you could call them feelings even, Nino was still not sure about that). Anyway, that didn't make it better.

What happened? Well, first, nothing happened at all. Nino met with Sakurai and Ohno at the appointed time and place – a quiet backyard of a restaurant he liked (which was still closed at that time but Nino made a deal with the owner) – the location of the next photo shoot.

Unfortunately, Aiba was busy – probably with being on a date with Jun - so Nino couldn't count on his styling miracles, but thankfully, Sakurai this time had nailed Nino's instructions on what kind of outfit he should wear. It was probably not that hard, bearing in mind the occupation of the man. He managed to come along in a nice black suit with a white dress shirt underneath and a crimson red necktie.

Nino smirked victoriously when he spotted the other dressed like that. He wouldn't have much to do but fix his hairstyle a bit, probably, which shouldn't be too big a problem. After all, working together with Aiba for years bore some fruits and even Nino's initially bad styling sense had improved. Further, after three shootings, he knew exactly what kind of styling looked good on Sakurai. He had taken so many pictures of him, he could probably draw his face while sleeping.

"I don't want to be impolite, Ninomiya-san," Sakurai started as he took in the location as well as his own outfit. He looked at the man, confused. "But how does all of this fit into the topic of our shooting? Isn't it supposed to have something to do with fantasy and such?"

Sakurai had to admit he didn't understand immediately what was so special about the location that Nino chose for his shooting. Or why was he basically wearing his working clothes. Admittedly, the backyard was nice, there were a few small tables set on a wooden terrace, a few plants surrounding them and lanterns hanging everywhere. It must look great and probably even romantic in the evening and people sitting here, enjoying their delicious dinner. On the other side of the yard, across the back entrance of the restaurant, there was only a red brick wall. It wasn't completely sure if the wall was constructed that way on purpose for the rustic look or if it was a real wall, leftover from a building. It looked kind of vintage and a bit damaged at a few spots, but it was clean.

"You'll see, you'll see," Nino smirked, feeling satisfied.

In fact, the photographer was pretty excited. He couldn't wait to start taking pictures of Sakurai and show them to him. Maybe, this time he could even call him to the photo studio to show him the edited pictures, Nino had planned a few special things for the editing part of this photoshoot. He wanted to see Sakurai's surprise and his smile when he saw the results.

"Ohno-san? If you could be so helpful?" Nino looked at the painter, smiling at him slightly and then pointed at the red brick wall. "Sakurai, come here, please," he then said, waving the man closer.

Surprised, Sakurai stumble a few steps forward until he reached Nino, who put his hands on Sakurai's arms and guided him back towards the wall, earning a questioning look.

"Just stand here and wait a bit," Nino then said, pushing the man slightly into the position he wanted him in.

Ohno – who had come along in a loose T-shirt, an old pair of jeans, flat hair and a small box in his hands – had followed the two men and was now standing next to Nino.

The photographer nodded and then started to spread his hand, gesturing something about where he wanted to have the lines, the forms, how tall he imagined them and how detailed everything should be. Ohno nodded shortly after taking in the expectations of the photographer and then opened the small box, pulling out a large, white piece of chalk. He took a step closer towards Sakurai who still didn't understand at all what was going on, and then Ohno set the chalk onto the red brick and started moving his arm, spreading it widely, up, making a thick white line as long as possible for his short arms.

Nino ran backwards and grabbed one of the restaurant's chairs, bringing it to the painter who then stepped on top of it to have a better reach. Sakurai looked at the man's arms movements, not able to decipher what was going on. Ohno stopped and the office worker almost thought, the man was finished, but the painter walked a few steps and started repeating the very same procedure on Sakurai's other side.

The photographer couldn't help but smile when he locked eyes with Sakurai, his look still confused. The photographer nodded slightly as if he wanted to tell the other that everything was fine and then he turned and pulled something out of his bag – a black stylish hat – that he handed Sakurai.

"Put it on," he told him, gesturing encouragingly, and Sakurai did as he was ordered. "Looks good," Nino added, satisfied. "Ohno-san, have you finished?"

"Almost," the painter said in his usual calm voice and indeed, it didn't take him that long until he pulled back the chalk from the red brick wall, climbed from the chair and went a few steps backwards, standing next to Nino, to examine his work.

"It's perfect," Nino said in a low voice, his arms crossed and his eyes focused on the white chalk drawings embracing Sakurai.

"What... what is it?" the businessman asked and he was about to turn back too and take in the sight when he got interrupted by Nino.

"Stop!" the photographer said. "Don't look at it now. First, I want to take a picture."

"But -"

"Let us surprise you," Nino smiled at Sakurai when he finally lifted his camera to his eyes. "Trust me, it's beautiful."

Surprisingly, Sakurai did trust him without asking any further questions, or at least he gave up for now. He followed Nino's instructions on a variety of poses, some simple ones, some a bit more difficult. Sometimes he seemed to feel a bit lost, still moving a bit clumsily but all in all, he wasn't that bad and Nino had a lot of fun. They didn't take that many pictures in the first few positions and soon, Nino sent Ohno away, who – as Sakurai could only see from the corner of his eye – walked to another part of the brick wall and started drawing something else, something that the man couldn't make out from this angle. Nino scolded his model a bit for being so unfocused and took another picture.

The photographer smiled unintentionally when he checked the picture on his camera's screen and then looked at Sakurai.

"Do you want to take a look?" he offered and the man immediately came towards him, smiling broadly.

"Sure!"

Nino blushed a little when Sakurai walked around him to face the camera in the same direction as the photographer. Standing a bit to the side and a bit behind the photographer, Sakurai's face almost touched Nino's when the man leaned forward to have a better look. Nino cleared his throat and tried to ignore his heart that was suddenly beating faster, hoping that the other man couldn't hear it. To his defence, Sakurai was a handsome man, he was a bit taller than Nino, he looked stunning in his outfit, his aftershave mixed with his body's scent smelled incredibly nice and the closeness… it had been a while since another man except his work colleagues came so close to Nino, that's all. He tried to breathe properly, which was a bit difficult at the moment, to be honest.

"Here," Nino said in a low voice, quickly enlarging the first picture from the overview on his camera's screen.

The picture was small but the quality of the screen was great and so even details could be spotted easily. The picture showed Sakurai in his black suit, wearing the black hat and standing in front of the red brick wall casually, his hands stuffed into his trousers' pockets and his look slightly to the right side, facing downwards. The afternoon sun that was shining into the backyard, created interesting shadows on the wall, Sakurai's face was hidden in the shadow of the hat's brim and the highlight was Ohno's white chalk drawing surrounding Sakurai's dark silhouette. The white of the drawing was almost glowing, fine and thick baroque lines forming its specific shapes.

"Wings…," Sakurai whispered close to Nino's ear – too close -, "You… you gave me wings!"

Nino's heart was ready to burst from his chest when the young man dared to turn his head slightly, just a little bit, to Sakurai's expression. He swallowed hard when he saw the man's stunned face, his (gorgeous) slightly parted lips, his shining eyes as he watched the impressive chalk drawing. Nino couldn't bear it any longer and took a small step aside, the closeness to Sakurai was killing him. Sakurai didn't notice it, too busy switching his gaze between the picture on Nino's camera screen and the actual chalk drawing on the brick wall across them – a huge pair of drawn wings, princely, majestic, gracious. Sakurai took a deep breath, taking in the situation.

"Ohno-san created a real masterpiece," Nino murmured, rubbing his nose slightly. "He's incredible."

"You are both incredible," Sakurai replied, pointing at the picture enthusiastically. "I mean… you turned me into an angel!"

Sakurai's smile was indeed the one of an angel, at least to Nino in this very second. He couldn't look at it, he felt blinded, as if he didn't deserve it. He averted his eyes, his heart still beating like crazy.

"When I thought about the topic and you, this was what came to my mind immediately. I'm not sure how creative this really is," the photographer began, "But I think, it suits you."

Sakurai chuckled the cutest chuckle Nino had ever heard when he looked at him again.

Nino dared to look at Sakurai's smile, feeling like it would burn him, when the man said, "That is probably the cutest thing someone ever told me."

Nino's heart skipped a beat and he would probably have forgotten how to breathe if Ohno didn't pull him out of his thoughts, coming closer and telling Nino that he had finished the second drawing. Sakurai immediately ran towards the spot at which Ohno had been working until now and let out an impressed "Wow!" at the sight of another drawn pair of wings, this time not a frontal view as the last time, but in profile. Also, the wings weren't as majestic and huge as the first pair, but more compact and… yeah… cuter. Sakurai chuckled, pointing at them excitedly.

"Ohno-san, you're a genius!" he complimented the painter who smiled quirkily at the other, nodding thankfully. "Ninomiya-san, let's continue the shooting!"

"Ah, yes, of course!" Nino replied and stumbled a few steps after Sakurai, accompanied by Ohno. He started giving instructions while walking. "So… stand in front of the wall, turn aside so that your right shoulder faces it… alright. Turn your head to the front, chin down, good… take off your hat with your right hand, ah, wait!" Nino came running and reached his hand to Sakurai's slightly messed up hair to fix it. "OK. Now place the hat on your chest and turn slightly towards me – a bit more – and now smile!"

Snap.

The shot was perfect. It was charming. It was heart-melting and Nino loved it.

They continued with the shooting for a bit longer. Ohno created another two different pairs of wings that Nino and Sakurai set into the right action to create some more marvellous pictures. They completely lost track of time and although the restaurant's owner had first told Nino that he had to leave once the restaurant opened for business around 6 pm, he didn't send them away and let them continue their work since they were so focused and into it.

In fact, the first customers, who arrived at the location and went to take a seat on one of the tables in the backyard, were very pleased and excited at the sight of the photoshoot. When Nino called out to Sakurai that they have finished their last shot, people behind him – that he hadn't noticed at all– applauded and cheered on them, not only making Sakurai but also Nino blush deeply once they realized what was going on.

In the end, when Nino asked the restaurant owner if they should clean the brick wall, the man smiled at him and shook his head, even begged him to leave the drawings there if it was fine with the artist. When they looked at the man wondering, he pointed at a few restaurant customers, some young adults, which had stood up and went to the chalk wings, posing in front of them with huge smiles while others were taking pictures with their cell phones.

Ohno's face was shining when he saw that his creation was able to trigger such big smiles on other people's faces and he immediately gave the owner his assurance that he could leave the drawing as long as he wanted. He even offered his business card in case he wanted him to come over and renew the drawings – being paid next time, of course.

Nino smirked at the painter's cheeky attitude but remembering how broke Ohno must be as he was not yet a big name in the world of arts, he guessed that the man could use any form of promotion and job he could get his hands on.

"What do you think, guys, shall we grab a bite here before we leave?" Nino offered Ohno and Sakurai, pointing at one of the still empty tables. "My treat. To celebrate this successful shooting." And probably to spend a little more time with Sakurai, Nino added in his thoughts.

Sakurai's eyes became big and he nodded excitedly, causing Nino to chuckle. Perhaps, it was the easiest way to make Sakurai happy if you offer him food, the photographer thought amused. Even if he himself was never that much of a gourmet, he had already found out how much fun it was to watch Sakurai eat and enjoy his meals. That man was a real foodie!

"My idea behind the shooting was to portray you as an angel who came to earth to protect people," Nino started explaining, once the three of them were seated, sipping their drinks and waiting for their orders to be served. "But you have to disguise as a normal human being in order not to attract too much attention, and to protect yourself too, so to say."

Sakurai let out a burst of hearty laughter that made Nino feel all warm inside.

"That's such a cool idea, really! So, I'm working as a businessman but helping other people… when? At night? Like a superhero?" he sounded amused and excited at the same time. So cute.

"Well," Nino slightly scratched his nose. "You're helping them whenever you can."

"He's a secret angel," Ohno added dreamily, causing the other two men to laugh.

"Yes, you could say so, he hides his wings but his powers are there," Nino explained further. "Thus, the symbolized wings on the brick wall. Yeah… that's basically it."

Sakurai again repeated how much he loved Nino's idea and how proud and grateful he felt for having been portrayed as an angel by him. He looked at the chalk drawings again which were just in front of him from his position and smiled warmly when he saw a young couple embracing each other, each of them turned so that they had one wing at their backs.

The three men continued chatting for a while, even if Ohno didn't talk much unless he was directly addressed and Sakurai was the one doing the most talking. Nino was even a little surprised, knowing how shy and nervous Sakurai usually was, but it seemed the man had totally let down his guard or completely opened up to them after the shooting.

The photographer didn’t know if this was thanks to the fact that they knew each other a lot better now than in the beginning - some people were slow to warm up but then they were easy to be with – or if Sakurai indeed had developed more confidence since the first test shooting. He had been great during the supernatural shooting, Nino had to give fewer instructions as the photo shoot progressed and either Sakurai hadn't noticed their audience or he was able to ignore them which would show how much more professional his attitude as a model had become.

"I heard you are a model too in this project, right, Ohno-san?" Sakurai asked the painter when the waiter left the table after serving their meals.

Ohno nodded, his face already stuffed with a huge piece of medium raw steak. Nino was impressed by how much of a gourmet the man seemed to be – or probably he just never had a chance to eat steak in a fancy restaurant, that would be more possible.

"What made you join the project?" the businessman continued, curiously.

"Matsumoto asked me if I'm interested," Ohno said in between two bites. He reached for his beer, taking a big sip. "I did it for the money."

Sakurai frowned at the painter. "The money?"

"Yeah, because I get paid for posing around a little, following instructions...," the painter said, gesturing with his knife. "It's not that hard of a job I thought and I earn more than sitting on the street all day long trying to sell my art."

Nino bit his lower lip. If Ohno knew how much of a headache he had given Jun so far, he probably wouldn't call this job "not that hard", he thought. Or, he just wouldn't care. Ohno was an interesting person, a bit hard to read, so anything was possible.

"I didn't know we get paid...," Sakurai suddenly said, drawing Nino's attention.

Ohno shrugged. "Well, at least Matsumoto pays me. Not sure about yours." He nonchalantly pointed at Nino with the tip of his fork who was nibbling on an especially long French-fries that came with his burger menu.

"I don't get paid," Sakurai then said, turning his look to Nino who just lifted his eyebrows innocently.

"Then you did something wrong," Ohno arched an eyebrow. "I even got paid for the chalk drawings of your photoshoot here."

"Ninomiya-san paid you for that?"

"Of course!" Ohno frowned indignantly. "I'm an artist after all! I get paid for my art."

Sakurai turned to face Nino again. "Ninomiya-san, why didn't you tell me that the models get paid in this project?"

Nino finished chewing the bite of his burger that filled his mouth at that moment, before he replied matter-of-factly, "Because you don't."

"What?" Sakurai replied in confusion. "But Ohno-san just told me Matsumoto-san pays him, no?"

"He volunteers to pay," Nino pointed out, gesturing with his one hand while his other was still clenching his delicious burger.

Or rather, Ohno wouldn't have agreed on joining the project otherwise. To be fair, compared to Sakurai, Ohno didn't have a job that paid regularly and well enough, so he really needed the money while Sakurai… probably not so much.

However, the topic seemed not to be over for Sakurai. "What about you?"

"What about me?"

"Are… you going to pay me too?" the businessman asked, more curious than demanding.

"Well, Matsumoto told me you volunteered for modelling," Nino replied, tilting his head and offering Sakurai a small smile.

"But Ohno-san -"

"Good for Ohno-san that he gets paid, bad for you that you don't," Nino murmured huffily, a bit surprised that the topic was starting to annoy him so much. Not because of the money. True, he might be a bit stingy at times if necessary, but he paid for things if needed. Further according to Jun's information, Sakurai had offered his participation in this project for free, so why should Nino feel guilty about that now? "Not part of the deal."

"So what's part of the deal then?" Sakurai asked.

"Well, I promised you to help you become more confident… through these photo shooting challenges," Nino offered slowly, remembering his first actual meeting with Sakurai in the photo studio, the man telling him that he admired him and that he wanted to become like Nino. Even if it had felt strange back then, now Nino felt even stranger about it. There wasn't exactly something he could offer Sakurai, he didn't share any tips with him, the only way he could help him was indeed to make him a confident model… and he didn't fail in that, did he?

"Don't you think the fact that you're talking to me like this right now proves that your confidence level has gained already?"

"Well, I...," Sakurai seemed to think about the situation. "I guess you're right but..."

Nino felt the curious look of Ohno on him now, wondering, what the painter might be thinking about the whole situation. He could give in now, tell Sakurai that he would pay him for his efforts once the shooting was over – because he really worked hard after all. Ohno would surely tell Jun and Jun would add two and two and figured out that something about this whole situation was off. Because Nino hadn't intended to pay the model from the beginning, that was for sure, so he would become suspicious about what might have changed Nino's mind. Or who. No, Nino would be better in insisting and, well, Sakurai would probably call it confidence anyway so he should better keep up his attitude. It was what the other wanted to see of him after all, right?

"I help you and you help me," Nino finally said, trying to wear his best poker face. He hoped that he sounded more convincing than he felt. "That was our deal. If you have any complaints about that, you're free to drop out, I don't give a fuck."

OK, maybe, that had gone a little too far. Nino didn't mean it. It wasn't true. He didn't want Sakurai to drop out of the project and leave him hanging halfway but even more, he didn't want to see the man turning on his heel and walking out of his life. Not yet. Nino wasn't ready yet to let him go…

His heart was now pounding like crazy, he felt a few drops of cold sweat forming under his messy bangs and his appetite had suddenly vanished completely as he took a bite to bridge the strange silence that suddenly fell over the table, and didn't taste anything at all in his mouth.

Sakurai, as well as Ohno's eyes on him, made Nino want the ground to open up and swallow him whole. Damned, this was exactly, why he didn't really like dealing with people. It was too complicated, too exhausting and the risks of getting hurt or hurting other people was just too high…

"No…," Sakurai finally broke the silence. Nino stopped his nervous chewing, looking at the man, curiously. His heartbeat stopped at a moment when the other flashed him a confident – yes, confident - smile. "I'll stay."

Those words felt like honey to Nino's ears but he almost choked on his bite of tasteless hamburger when his heart started beating again double speed. He swallowed.

"Why?" he asked, his voice probably a bit shakier than he intended for it to sound. "... I don't even pay you."

"You need me, don't you?"

Nino frowned. Did someone say confident? Cocky would describe that attitude too, probably. Was Sakurai going to demand money now or what was he planning?

"Tsk," Nino rolled his eyes before he stubbornly replied, "I could take any other model..."

"But we made so much progress already, didn't we?" Sakurai pointed out, determined. "If you'd have to redo everything with someone else..."

"OK fine, yes, I need you, satisfied?" Nino admitted. Even if he didn't admit that he probably didn't want to lose the other because of other reasons. "So what do you want? The money?"

"No, nothing," Sakurai replied, shaking his head.

"Then what's the money talk about?" Nino asked with a questioning eyebrow.

Sakurai tilted his head. "I just... thought it's not fair."

"Life isn't fair," Nino snorted.

"You don't need to tell me that," the other replied, locking eyes with Nino, his expression suddenly turned to… hurt? "I experienced that a lot. But I also know that I'm partly to be blamed too for that."

Nino swallowed. Surely, the man was talking about his situation with his family, his brother who overtook him with huge steps, running ahead of him despite them being twins, his father who wasn't as proud of him as of his brother, and probably a mother who bragged about her one successful son while keeping silent about the other. Nino averted his eyes. He felt guilty now, he didn't mean to bring up that topic. He didn't want to hurt Sakurai.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean…," he started, not really knowing what he could offer in apology.

But Sakurai just shook his head slightly, his look softening again.

"I know. It's OK, not your fault. If I can become more confident... I might be able to change things. We're working on it, aren't we?" he flashed Nino a crooked smile. "I help you and you help me, that's our deal, right?"

"If things are just so easy…," Nino added in a low voice, instead of agreeing with Sakurai as he initially wanted.

He just couldn't get the right words out from his mouth. He cursed himself internally. What was that about making the other confident? That wasn't the right way, Ninomiya!

"Hope is everything I have left," Sakurai chuckled and again there was a glint of sadness in his eyes, that almost made Nino lose it.

"I'm doing it, no?" he asked without thinking any further. "Making you confident…"

Or at least, Nino had helped Sakurai to waken his inner confidence, probably. Something that was maybe just asleep in his chest, a potential that the man himself didn't know about yet. The sadness in the business man's eyes faded, getting replaced by warmth.

"Indeed you are, thank you, Ninomiya-san," Sakurai smiled and Nino smiled back automatically, looking into those beautiful eyes, ready to drown in them, and they just stayed like this, until Nino had completely forgotten about the rest of his burger in his hands.

"You're just stingy, Ninomiya, that's all," Ohno suddenly interrupted the slightly awkward situation.

Nino snapped his head in the painter's direction.

"Please, don't get involved in this, Ohno-san," he murmured.

"By the way, Sakurai-kun," Ohno then changed the topic as well as conversation partner, the sudden familiar usage of -kun made Nino cringe a little. "I wanted to ask you if you'd like to model for one of my paintings."

"Me?!" Sakurai choked on his last sip of beer in surprise. When he stopped coughing, he sent the man a questioning look. "Why would you want to paint me?"

"Because you're a handsome man?" Ohno smirked, leaning his chin on his palm.

Now it was Nino's turn to choke on his beer. Was the painter flirting with his model in front of his eyes?!

"What are you saying, Ohno-san…," Sakurai chuckled nervously, a blush of red showing on his cheek and he put his hand in his nape, tilting his head cutely.

Too cute for Nino's taste with regards to the situation. Suddenly his heart was feeling a painful stab. Sakurai wasn't getting hooked by Ohno's flirting attempts, was he?! Not that he wasn't a free man to do so but… Nino didn't like that. Anyway, it wasn't his place to say anything against it, he knew that, and so he just sat there, glaring at Ohno who either didn't notice his deadly eyes or had decided to ignore Nino and just continued flirting with Sakurai.

"I am an artist, I can see the potential of beautiful things and of course also beautiful people when they are sitting across me," the painter continued and Nino started to feel sick at the verbal honey that dripped from Ohno's lips.

Nino was just too aware of the fact how much Ohno's words sounded like his own thoughts.

Again, Sakurai chuckled. Shit, Ohno's flirting seemed to work. But just when Nino was thinking hard about what he could say now to prevent Sakurai from taking the offer - because for some reason Nino didn’t like the idea at all - the businessman parted his lips and said something himself.

"Thank you very much, Ohno-san, I take this as a compliment but... I think working on one project is more than enough for me already," Sakurai said, exchanging a look with Nino before he smiled at the artist.

"I thought so," the man replied, smirking. "Well, my offer stays even after the end of this project. Keep it in mind."

"Thank you," Sakurai nodded in appreciation before he focused on his meal again.

Nino couldn't help but feel his lips curling up into a small smile that he immediately tried to hide behind his handful of burger, which he ate passionately again. Maybe it was childish to feel like a "winner" right now, but he did and this time, for some reason, the burger tasted much better.

TBC


	6. Chapter 6

Mildly said, Aiba was surprised to find Nino in front of his and Jun’s apartment when he went to open the door as the doorbell rang. It’s been literally years since the last time the young man visited Aiba – during the house-warming party after the couple moved in together.

Aiba never took it personally that Nino didn’t visit them, he knew that he and Jun were a little on edge most of the time (even if they could get along if they wanted to and behaved) and Nino wasn’t exactly the type to visit friends, or invite friends, or hang out with friends in general. Anyway, the surprise must have been painted right over Aiba’s face as he didn’t even greet his surprise guest and just stared at him with a stunned look.

"Aiba, there’s a question mark growing on top of your head," the visitor said plainly as he pointed at his friend. When the other still didn’t say anything, Nino started shuffling from one to the other foot. "I’m sorry but... can you let me in, please?"

Aiba looked at him even more confused now, it was at least as uncommon as unannounced visits that Nino had the word "please" coming out of his mouth.

"Aiba-chan, I need your help," Nino finally added in a low voice, almost sounding desperate.

After waking up from his shock, Aiba smiled (trying not to smirk cheekily). It was also unusual for Nino to call him by his nickname. The stylist leaned against the doorframe, checking out his friend.

"What can I do for you, Nino-chan?"

His friend looked embarrassed somewhat and averted his eyes immediately.

"I don’t have anything nice to wear, could you lend me some stuff or something?"

Wondering why would Nino need a nice outfit, Aiba arched an eyebrow and leaned a bit forward, curiously. "What kind of clothes are we talking about?"

"I need something special," the photographer replied. "Something… uhm...," he blushed. "I want to look hot, OK?" Nino blurted out.

Now, Aiba couldn’t hold back any longer and smirked, feeling amused, leaning back again and crossing his arms, making his coolest pose possible.

"What occasion are we talking about here?"

Nino looked at him with a frown as if he wanted to ask if he really had to tell but he knew that he didn’t have a choice if he wanted his friend to help him, so he just sighed deeply before he gave a proper answer.

"The upcoming photoshoot at the club."

As expected, Aiba chuckled. "You know that you are not the model but the photographer, right?"

"Aiba…," Nino closed his eyes and lifted his head to pinch the bridge of his nose.

"So you want to look hot for Sakurai, I get it," the smirk was now irremovable from the stylist’s face.

"Aiba!"

"OK, OK, don’t look at me as if you want to kill me, please!" the man chuckled again, loosened his pose and took a step aside to show his friend the way inside. "We will make you look hot, I swear. Come on in now."

Nodding slightly and murmuring the usual phrase for entering another person’s house, Nino stepped into the apartment’s entrance area. He removed his shoes and gratefully took the slippers Aiba offered him (they were nice and fluffy, by the way, and Nino thought he should probably get some of these too, but in black and not grass green, if possible).

Of course Jun was there too and of course he had to cross Nino’s and Aiba’s way to the bedroom.

"Hey Nino, how are the preparations going for the club shooting? I’m curious to see you in action this time, let’s make it a real fight!" the young man took a guts pose and shot his colleague a challenging look.

Nino sighed and rolled his eyes, as usual.

"As I already told you, Jun, I’m not interested in fighting you. I’ll do my work and you do yours and that’s it," the man shrugged before he glared at the other, seriously. "Don’t dare to sabotage me, I’ll kill you, I swear."

"Charming as always," Jun snorted. He was the one talking, Nino thought annoyed. "What are you doing here by the way? I planned an evening chilling with Masaki, you know?"

"Thanks, I know I’m not really welcomed," Nino admitted, his voice sounding flat. "I promise, I’ll be gone as fast as I can, I just need some quick styling tips from your boyfriend, OK?"

"What for?" Jun looked at him suspiciously. "I mean, besides that without Masaki, you would be a helpless case anyway. Something special?"

"Jun, just leave me alone, really," Nino sighed.

"So we’re not going to talk about it?" Jun’s thick eyebrows looked like moving caterpillars when he shot his colleague another questioning look.

"Nope," Nino shook his head.

"I see…," Jun nodded, pouting slightly. "Well, I guess I’ll find out sooner or later anyway," he waved the topic off.

Nino snapped his head around to his friend. "Aiba, I swear, if you tell him –"

"It’s enough now you two," Aiba chimed in, not exactly picking up on Nino’s intent. "Let me do my work and don’t fight, please."

"We’re not fighting-," Jun started, but his boyfriend cut him off immediately.

"You just want to tease him, stop it, Jun," he said, tilting his head cutely. "Please?"

Nino grinned slightly when he experienced first-hand how Jun literally melted at his boyfriend’s gesture, he was just too weak when it came to Aiba.

"Alright… I’m going to make dinner then," Jun said with a smile and to Nino’s surprise, he then sent him another look, a normal look! "Nino, you want to join us?"

Stunned, Nino gasped at his colleague.

"Oh wow," he chuckled when he found his words. "First you nag me, then you invite me for dinner, what happened, did I pass out and wake up in a parallel universe?"

Jun rolled his eyes. "I don’t have to invite you, so if you don’t shut up –"

"OK. I’ll stay," Nino said quickly, flashing Jun a smile of which the other wasn’t hundred per cent sure if it was sarcastic or actually serious. He couldn't waste this chance, after all, Jun was famous for his cooking skills and who would be so stupid to decline free dinner? "Thanks, Jun."

Confused, Jun decided to just nod slowly before he went back to the kitchen. Aiba chuckled when he resumed heading to his and Jun’s bedroom, Nino in tow.

"What?" Nino asked, sounding annoyed again.

"Nothing," Aiba said, hiding his grin behind his hand.

"What is it?"

Aiba laughed when they arrived at the bedroom and he switched on the lights to have a better view on the clothes that he will very soon pull out of his closets.

"You two are so funny," he finally started. "You always bicker but in reality you’re friends, right?"

"I don’t know what you’re talking about," the other man pouted.

"You just don’t know how to properly express your feelings," Aiba smiled warmly. "And Jun saves his affection for me, mostly."

Nino frowned. "Good for you, I suppose?"

While Aiba opened all of his closets and took in the huge choice of clothes that were in there, the conversation continued or let’s say, it took an unexpected direction, according to Nino.

"It’s fulfilling to have a partner, Nino."

"Why are you telling me this?" the photographer asked after a short pause.

Aiba was already busy with pulling out some jeans, t-shirts, other stuff that looked fancy or cool or both. In some cases, Nino didn’t even know what to call the clothes in their different designs.

"Oh, I just wondered, maybe you should try it too? A relationship, I mean."

"I’m not the type for relationships, Aiba," Nino replied, picking up a random piece of clothes, trying to figure out what the imprint was supposed to say. "You know that…"

Aiba turned around and pushed a pair of trousers that matched Nino’s shirt choice into his friend’s arms.

"Why do you want to look hot for Sakurai then?" he asked him challenging, looking straight into Nino’s eyes.

Nino swallowed as he searched for words.

"I… I just want to look hot on the rare occasion of visiting a club, OK?" he tried hard to sound and look nonchalant but he feared he was failing. "It’s not like I’m doing this every weekend after all and who knows... maybe I’ll meet a nice guy there?"

"Someone like Sakurai?" Aiba offered with a grin.

Nino chuckled nervously. "I doubt he’s the type for a one-night-stand and I already told you, I’m not made for relationships," he added.

Aiba hummed, thinking, and held up a few more shirts in Nino’s direction before deciding that they didn’t match him and putting them back into the closet. Then he turned around again, handing Nino another shirt – a red-black plaid shirt - that he exchanged with the plain black shirt Nino was holding.

"People change, Nino," he said, before throwing a blue pair of jeans at his friend, gesturing him to try the outfit he picked for him. "I mean, look at how much Sakurai changed already since you two met, even if he probably didn’t notice it himself. Anyway, you’re changing too, probably," Aiba offered a smile.

"What did you eat for lunch, a psychological guidebook for anti-social people?" Nino asked sarcastically, starting to change his clothes in front of his friend.

"You’re not that anti-social, Nino," Aiba said, sitting down on the edge of the bed. "You’re just a little clumsy with people," he smiled again, warmly.

"If anyone is clumsy here, it’s Sakurai. Literally," Nino tried to change the topic with a joke and Aiba picked it up, thankfully.

"That’s true," he chuckled. "He’s really clumsy. But he’s cute, right?"

Damned, Nino celebrated too early. Aiba wasn’t ready to leave the topic yet. The photographer sighed and in a very low voice, he replied. "Maybe."

"Anyway, I think you did well with him," his friend continued. "Those pics from that supernatural shooting you showed me... just wow! And at least you’re much more patient with him than Jun with Ohno-san," Aiba chuckled. "You really should have seen them on their outdoor shooting, the fishing trip, you heard about it, right?"

Nino nodded.

"Jun had to pay the rent for that boat Ohno-san wanted – it was really expensive – so he was pissed already before the shooting started and then what happened was nothing at all for hours and we just hung out on the boat trying to get Ohno-san moving or doing something else just so that Jun would be able to take pictures– it was hopeless."

"I guess, for you, it was a nice trip, it sounds very relaxed," Nino said amused.

Aiba laughed before pointing at a specific combination of clothes that Nino then grabbed from the bed, holding it in front of him while standing across the mirror. Nino looked at his friend questioningly, and Aiba nodded, determined, while giving his friend a thumbs-up.

"Indeed, I had a great time, but Jun was just standing there," he took a pose mimicking his boyfriend, "Not moving at all, the camera in his hands and waiting until Ohno-san was moving a little – he didn’t cooperate at all, you see?"

"I can imagine," Nino chimed in, not surprised.

When he and Ohno had discussed what kind of chalk drawings Nino wanted for his supernatural shooting he had to work with the man too, and he found out that their visions differed from each other. Thankfully, when Nino stated that he was actually paying Ohno for his work, the other suggested some compromises that he could live with.

"It was really exciting, though, when he finally caught a fish and there was some action but for the rest…," another joyful laughter. "Jun was already considering dumping his camera into the sea just to have a reason to get off that boat, I swear!"

Nino wasn’t sure if it was Aiba’s loud laughter that lured Jun to peek his head into the bedroom, but he did, throwing his partner a questioning look. "Masaki, are you talking crap about me?"

So he heard it. Nino smirked.

"I’d never do that!" Aiba immediately defended himself, pointing at his boyfriend. "You actually said that!"

"No need to tell Nino, though," Jun rolled his eyes.

"Oh come on, Jun-chan, it was fun!"

Aiba came a few steps closer and lifted his finger to poke Jun’s cheek. Nino had always been amazed by what his friend was allowed to do to Jun that the latter would kill other people without hesitation for even trying.

"Fun for you maybe," Jun murmured.

"I had to promise not to go on a boat trip with him for our next holidays," Aiba chuckled, turning around to Nino who flashed him a smile.

"Whatever. Get your things done you two, dinner is ready soon," the other man said, poking Aiba at his side, making him squeal. Then, just before Jun left the room, he turned around again, grinning at Nino like the devil himself. "Oh, and what did I hear about Sakurai?"

"Eh?" Nino tried to act nonchalantly, but he was caught by surprise so maybe, he couldn’t completely hide his blush. Dammed.

"Don’t tell me, you fell in love with your model!" Jun grinned even wider, arching an eyebrow.

"I didn’t!" Nino retorted, immediately.

"But you’re about to, aren’t you?" his colleague continued, pursing his lips. "How cute…"

Nino felt like his head was smoking. "Matsumoto Jun, you are not going to call me cute! Ever!"

"Too late, I did already!" the other replied, darting his tongue at Nino.

"Then take it back!"

"Nope, I won’t!" Jun replied. "Well... Good luck then, Nino. You might need it, you aren’t exactly fit for romance, are you?"

"Jun!" Nino said determined, wanting him to stop. Jun was the last one he wanted to talk about something like that.

"Gosh, you’re such kids, seriously!" Aiba rolled his eyes. "And if I am saying that, it means something!" the man folded his arms in front of his chest, his look wandering from Jun to Nino and back again.

Jun sighed as if he was finally giving up and ready to turn and leave the room. Just then, he snapped his head once more into Nino’s direction, his lips curling up devilishly.

"Don’t forget to credit me on the wedding invitations as matchmaker if you two really work out."

"JUN!" Nino and Aiba replied in unison before the other man turned around laughing and went back to the kitchen.

\- + -

The thing that was special about the next photoshoot was that they actually had to do the shooting altogether at the same location. Same circumstances, same setting, same light, same everything - except the same model of course. Although Tacky explicitly said that he was interested in seeing how the photographers would not only deal with their own model, but also with the other one. Thus, it was very acceptable to see pictures with them both too, the man said. Oh and not to forget - he would be present there too and examine each and every step of the two competing photographers. Together with the rest of the crew.

"This will be so much fun, believe me!" Tacky had said with his widest grin before he finally had told them the next - and last, by the way - topic for their photoshoot competition.

Clubbing.

This time, Nino had been the one sighing in frustration. He even felt the urge to slam his head on the desk just to not have to go there.

He hated clubbing. Really. He hated it. Nothing good came out of it. He was too shy to dance (even if Aiba insisted on Nino being a great dancer but the photographer didn’t believe him and thought it was just a nice thing a friend would tell someone to cheer him up). He didn’t even really like alcohol, except for a beer with a good meal once in a while, because he would quickly become immensely drunk and he hated being drunk (or what he tended to do when he was). Further, hanging out at the bar of a club without dancing and being surrounded by a ton of drunkards felt almost unbearable for Nino who was usually in a not-drunken state. Nino also hated large crowd of people and where was the best place to find a mass of people on the weekend? Right, clubs. So yeah, go figure his dilemma.

"Couldn’t you choose something less... I don’t know...," Nino didn’t want to say "stupid" right into his boss’ face but really, he was at a loss of words.

"You don’t like the idea, Nino?" Tacky asked innocently.

Nino snorted. He knew exactly that Tacky knew this was absolutely not his thing. After all, Nino was already hard to get for an after-work drink, but clubbing? A whole new level.

"May I voice my suspicion that I think that you actually only chose that location to have an excuse to go clubbing together with all of us before you leave for New York with your new partner?" the photographer replied wittily, his arms crossed. Not that he expected this would make his boss change his mind but at least he would be right.

"I don’t know what you’re talking about," his boss said in an innocent voice but his wink towards Jun - who looked much more enthusiastic by the way - spoke volumes. Bingo.

"I love the idea!" Jun finally burst, happily, a wide grin on his face.

Nino rolled his eyes. Of course, Jun liked the idea, because Jun liked clubbing. A lot. He went there every single weekend, not minding his bad hangover on Monday mornings when he came to work with headaches and dark circles underneath his eyes. Nino remembered that, as if it was yesterday, when he too used to come to work with dark circles around his eyes on Monday mornings but for different reasons. He had spent his weekends - not so different from nowadays - on his couch with his games.

Jun’s "wild life" continued for the first few years after he and Jun joined the "Blue Hour" as apprentices until Aiba joined the photo studio as a stylist. Jun fell for the man head over heels and quickly realized that his appearance on a Monday morning was probably not charming enough to make someone like that new stylish guy interested in him. Soon though, Jun found out that Aiba wasn’t much less a clubber than he was. However, getting together soon after made the two rethink over their lifestyle and they both came to the conclusion that as a couple there were definitely more interesting and fun activities to do. Nino never dared to ask for any further details.

Anyway, Tacky’s choice of topic was what lead Nino to Aiba and Jun’s apartment the other day, on the hunt for the perfect clubbing outfit. As the photographer had already told Aiba back then, he wanted to at least look hot. Because you were supposed to look hot in a club, no? Honestly, Nino was so inexperienced with stuff like that, he wasn’t even sure if he wanted to know all the dos and don’ts in details. He only knew that Sakurai would be there and that the atmosphere would probably be hot and... yeah... and what? What did Nino expect from the evening? Did he even expect anything?

He tried hard to picture Sakurai in a club. He didn’t ask the man but he could not really imagine him spending his time in places like that. Sakurai didn’t seem confident enough to be going to clubs and hang out there... or he did and ended up at the bar with some alcohol in hand to drown his insecurities, just like Nino would do. However, for the shooting, Sakurai would have to act more than confident. He would have to dance.

Tacky didn’t give much more information but that he already chose the perfect club as the location for the photoshoot, that he expected the models to look incredible and that he expected them to drink, flirt, dance, uh yeah!

Uh no, Nino thought.

Sakurai had indeed improved in his posing and everything in front of the camera, that wasn’t to be negated. Especially during the last one, the supernatural shooting, he was absolutely stunning. Nino had been breathless when he checked the pictures again on his computer, spicing up a few of them with his editing software to enforce the "supernatural" note on it. But posing and doing stuff like dancing were completely different topics.

It turned out to be probably even more difficult than expected when Nino tried to find out a bit more about Sakurai and his dancing abilities, a few days before the photo shoot. The models were already informed that they should keep Saturday evening free, but so far Nino hadn’t told Sakurai any more details.

"Dancing?! You mean... waltz, cha-cha-cha, stuff like that?" Sakurai had texted back on LINE, responding to Nino’s question.

"No... don’t tell me you are experienced in such dances?"

"I am not...," Sakurai typed back. "I and my brother had to learn them when we were younger though... to become the gentlemen my mother wanted us to be. You have three guesses as to who was the one tripping over his own feet."

Nino laughed heartily when he read Sakurai’s text, even if he knew the topic wasn’t funny, but his way of joking about his own clumsiness was just too cute. It was charming.

When Nino had calmed down from his laughing fit, he typed a reply. "I was talking about dancing like in clubs, you know, shaking your body and making strange movements, thinking that other people would probably find them sexy and stuff like that."

Sakurai’s answer didn’t take long. "Usually, I am the guy sitting at the bar asking himself what the hell he’s doing there."

Looking at the screen, Nino couldn’t prevent himself from smiling. This was so much like how he had expected Sakurai to be - plus he liked this subtle, charming humour that came out slowly but surely, the longer they kept exchanging messages.

"Me too," Nino sent back.

His imagination immediately ran wild, picturing himself (dressed in the hot outfit that Aiba had picked for him) and Sakurai sitting in a club at the bar, clinking some fancy cocktail glasses and slurping their drinks while chatting about some of the strangest dance moves of the fellow club visitors, trying to decide on a "Worst 5" ranking or something like that.

He smiled. Somehow that didn’t sound bad, did it? When Nino pulled himself out of his thoughts and focused onto his cell phone screen again, the chat with Sakurai was still opened but apparently, even if the other seemed to have read the message, he didn’t reply. Nino worried to have unsettled the man, quickly typed another sentence to prevent Sakurai from freaking out.

"Don’t worry, Matsumoto and Aiba will be there too, they can teach you a few easy moves and we’ll be fine!"

With a fast-beating heart, Nino kept staring at the screen, waiting for Sakurai to send a reply to confirm that he was still breathing. It took him a couple of more minutes that felt like hours for Nino, but then a line appeared in the chat.

"I’ll give my best at the shooting, I promise!"

Nino’s heart clenched a bit. He let his phone sink after thanking his model for his high spirit and wishing him a good night. Hopefully, Sakurai would be fine with the photoshoot. It probably would not be easy, but they had no other choice than giving their best, both of them.

In order to prepare as well as he could, Nino spent the rest of the evening with watching disco music videos on YouTube and researching for information about how to behave in such locations, no matter how stupid the questions he typed into google search might sound. This evening was definitely a weird one and Nino hoped that after the photoshoot he would never ever have to set a foot into one of those clubs, already fed up by several videos and pictorial material that he had consumed so far.

\- + -

The scene at the club on Saturday night was nearly as bad as Nino had expected it to be. It was loud. Hot. Crowded. Stressing. The rapidly colour changing lights that were trying to convince the club’s guests that they were matching the strange music - which wasn’t true at all - were just irritating. As expected and remembered from his experiences years ago, Nino hated it.

"If I develop epilepsy, I blame you, Boss," the photographer grumbled as the whole team of the "Blue Hour" plus Sakurai and Ohno entered the club Tacky chose.

"Don’t be silly, Nino," his boss replied immediately, patting his employee’s shoulder. "You’ve been playing video games since you’re a kid, if you didn’t suffer from epilepsy yet, you probably will never do. Now stop being a kill-joy and come on!"

Nino clicked his tongue. He shouldered his camera bag once more, grabbing it from underneath with one of his hand, pressing it close to his body, just in case some stupid clubber would bump into him. He had to protect Camelot, as he fought his way through the crowd, following Tacky and the others to the bar.

Jun immediately ordered some drinks - non-alcoholic for now, following Tacky’s order, since they were basically here for work after all, and handed out one after the other until everyone had a colourful fancy looking "Virgin Driver" in their hands. Nino critically eyed the drink in his hands, not sure if he was going to like it. The colour, texture and ingredients that Aiba immediately started to list, sounded too sweet for his teeth. But then, Sakurai, standing right next to him, held his glass into Nino’s vision and when he looked up to the other, the man smiled before clinking glasses with Nino.

"Let’s give our best for the shooting!" Sakurai said and nodded, a determined look on his face.

Nino blushed a little - glad that probably no-one would see it in this dubious lightning - and nodded back. Without being asked, all the others around them suddenly joined in too, yeah-ing and clinking glasses, wishing "Good Luck" (that was Jun and he sounded sarcastic when he locked eyes with Nino) and downing half of the virgin drink at once. Nino followed their example, shortly afterwards cursing his group instinct and cringing at the taste of the drink. Not exactly his type, he’d say.

"Alright!"

Tacky put down his - already empty - glass on the counter, clapped his hands and tried raising his voice to a volume that could be heard clearly by the group surrounding him, even over the music in the background (which was much too loud for Nino’s taste).

"You have a couple of hours to take photos. Nino, Jun, don’t forget who your main model is but also let them interact with each other or with other guests. Don’t forget to be polite and ask if strangers are fine with getting photographed. And now - have fun!"

Jun, Aiba and Keiko cheered, their drinks already finished too, while Nino, Suzu and Shige (yes, Nino was surprised too that he came along as well) were standing there with a not so amused face.

"I bet, our boss just needed an excuse to go celebrating. I’m sure his next drink won’t be a virgin anymore," Nino murmured, earning a chuckle by Suzu.

Next to them was Sakurai who looked rather nervous and Ohno who didn’t seem to care at all and focused on nibbling on a piece of pineapple from his drink’s decoration. When he asked Sakurai if he could have his piece too, Sakurai lifted his hand to protect his pineapple and shook his head before offering the other man an apology, telling him he would like to eat it himself. After hearing his model’s statement, Nino pulled off the fruit from his own glass and placed it on Sakurai’s, earning big eyes and an even bigger smile which was thanks enough for him.

Getting rid of his glass, Nino wanted to finally start this stupid photo shoot. The sooner it finished, the better, he thought, nothing else than wanting to leave this horrible place as soon as possible, on his mind. He pulled out his camera and feeling slightly nervous, he fumbled a bit around, looking through the lens and trying to adjust it correctly to the light and the surroundings. It was a real challenge to shoot in such a location, especially since they were just thrown into the scene instead of renting the place to be able to set it up according to their likings for a shooting. They didn’t have any tripods or reflectors with them, the only things that the challengers got were their stylist, their cameras and the location, including the incalculable number of lights and a crowd of people. Great resources...

Nino didn’t really have time to be grumpy though, since Aiba reached to grab his arm and pull him and Sakurai with him into the crowd, following Jun who had Ohno on tow already, to bring them to the centre of the dance stage. OK, so they would go full force from the beginning, Nino thought, sighing. Well, he had no choice anyway.

"What... what am I supposed to do now?!" Sakurai asked in a loud voice in order to reach Nino’s ears. He looked seriously confused.

Nino browsed his memory for what he had learned about clubbing and dancing the previous night but he honestly had no idea how he should communicate his knowledge to his model.

"Uhm...," he started, "Just... start with shaking your hips. Yeah, shake your hips and move your body to the music."

The photographer knew that he must sound and look insecure too. This was definitely not his topic. He lifted his camera to his face but didn’t start taking pictures. Instead, using the camera as a disguise to examine the other "team" on how they were dealing with the situation.

Nino’s chin dropped when he heard Jun trying to give some instructions to Ohno who apparently didn’t need them at all since the man started moving his body to the rhythm of the music with a smoothness that every woman would envy. His body seemed to flow with the music, his hands far from hanging loosely next to his body without knowing where they should be going, instead, Ohno let them wander over his own body graciously while shaking his hips in a sensual way.

"Holy shit," Nino whispered.

A blind man could see that Ohno was definitely not a beginner in dancing and everybody would have to admit that his dancing was damned sexy. When Nino looked back at Sakurai, who was staring at the painter too, completely stunned, Nino came a bit closer, screaming at his model to make sure he could hear him.

"Sakurai! Can you-," when the businessman snapped his head in Nino’s direction, the photographer continued. "Can you try doing the same as he does?"

Sakurai stared at him with big eyes and as if he wanted to call Nino crazy, he started shaking his head and lifting his hands in defence.

"I can NOT move like that. Not at all!"

"Well then... just go with the flow?" Nino offered a bit insecure. Crap, this was going to backfire, Sakurai was losing any confidence that he might have gained from their last shooting. "Don’t mind! Just move your body a little! You don’t have to do much, I’ll get the right angles with my camera and everything will look fine! You look great, believe me!" Nino added, hoping to make the other loosen up a little.

Sakurai grinned at Nino, looking a bit lost, but then he finally started moving too, letting his body sway a little to the music, trying to make similar hip moves to Ohno (which was impossible though) and not look like a lost string puppet. It was... hard. But at least, he moved, Nino thought and he wasn’t lying, Sakurai looked awesome.

In the studio where all of them met up before coming here, Aiba had chosen a red shirt for the man, tight so that it was embracing the hints of Sakurai’s muscular arms. The collar buttons were opened, showing the rim of a black tank top he was wearing underneath and a silver necklace falling on his chest. The sleeves of the shirt were rolled up to the elbows. Sakurai’s dark hair was styled to one side while Aiba had trimmed the opposite side a bit to make it a nice but not too prominent undercut. Seriously, it suited the man extremely well and Nino found it incredibly sexy. The pair of tight black jeans was doing a good job too, shaping Sakurai’s butt just perfectly.

Nino took a deep breath. He wasn’t here to drool over Sakurai in his clubbing outfit, he was here to capture that sexiness on photos and show them to Sakurai afterwards to make him aware of how confident he really can be - at least according to his hot looks.

The photographer adjusted his camera again and started moving too, closer to Sakurai, a bit away, he bent down on his knees, everything to find just the right angle to take a good shot. Giving instructions like "Don’t look so serious" or "Try to look seductive" were given, resulting in Sakurai looking even more confused until he finally seemed to fit a bit more into the role - at least he wasn’t gasping like a fish on dry land any longer.

Soon after, as Sakurai has gotten accustomed to the whole situation, his appearance slowly but surely seemed to draw attention (OK, maybe also the fact that there was another guy hanging around him taking photos like crazy) and a few young women actually started interacting with him, dancing right next to him, accidentally bumping into Sakurai to make him look at them, and even trying to flirt with him.

The man was slightly confused and a bit overwhelmed by the sudden attention, while Nino almost exploded when one of the women dared to touch Sakurai’s bare neck, letting her fingers trail down to his collarbones while trying to snake her right leg around the man’s waist.

"Excuse me, are you trying to dance with my model or are you trying to eat my model?" Nino grumbled at the woman as it became just too much for him to bear.

The woman - who was even a bit taller than him thanks to her high heels - looked down on the photographer with a critical look. She then seemed to decide that she didn’t want to deal with this situation and rather searched for another victim for the night and was gone as fast as she appeared just a few minutes before.

"Sorry, she was totally in the way, I couldn’t take pictures of you at all," Nino explained his reaction to Sakurai quickly, trying to hide his hopefully not too obvious jealousy.

Sakurai gave him his usual winning smile and continued dancing, encouraging Nino to keep up with his work. Nino gradually wondered if Sakurai was even enjoying the outing in the club - if he wasn’t eaten by a woman - because, for some reason, he didn’t seem so stiff and lost anymore.

Nino didn’t have the opportunity to ask though, finding it much more important to capture this relaxed and kind of amused Sakurai in his photos and so he just kept on shooting. Shortly after, someone nudged the photographer in his side and when he turned to face the culprit, it was Jun, who was beaming from joy - probably because Ohno unexpectedly had been a jackpot in this photoshoot.

"Let’s shoot them together!" Jun yelled over the music and people’s voices to reach Nino’s ear, as he pointed at Ohno and then at Sakurai. "It was Tacky-san’s idea after all!"

Nino shrugged and Jun gave Ohno a sign after that the man started dancing in Sakurai’s direction, a smirk on his lips and his hips shaking as if there was no tomorrow. Nino frowned immediately when Ohno reached Sakurai and instead of halting in front of him, he started touching him to make him turn. The painter let his hands slide onto Sakurai’s hips and started guiding his movements in sync with his own. Since Sakurai was a bit taller than the other, he instinctively settled his arms on the shoulders of the man to make the position a bit more comfortable. Jun immediately started to take pictures of them while Nino had a hard time to swallow down that huge lump that formed in his throat at that sight.

"This is just a dance, my Gosh, pull yourself together," the man whispered to himself and took a deep breath before he got ready again with his camera, following Jun’s example.

This scene continued for a while, Ohno and Sakurai dancing together, having fun together, Jun celebrating them and encouraging them to ask some hot chicks to join them, and Nino pulling together all of his self-control in order not to puke.

If there was something he hated more than being in a too hot club with too loud music and too many people, it was being in a too hot club with too loud music, too many people and having to witness Ohno shamelessly flirting with Sakurai with his irresistible dance moves. But he was a professional and this wasn’t the right time to become jealous - why should he even be!? So Nino tried to make the best job possible for him.

To Nino’s surprise it was Sakurai then, who broke up the shooting, breaking free from a chain he and Ohno had formed with a few girls, and stepping towards Nino, who let his camera sink and gave the other a questioning look.

"I’m sorry, I need a break, really," Sakurai said, out of breath and his sweaty forehead told stories of his exhaustion.

Nino understood and nodded.

"Shall we get you something to drink? Water? Another fancy non-alcoholic drink?" he suggested smirking and Sakurai nodded, a thankful smile on his lips, replying that water sounded just fine.

After a second of hesitation, Nino grabbed Sakurai’s wrist and pulled him after him through the mass of dancing people, towards the bar where they had been at the beginning of the evening. The other stumbled slightly after him so that the photographer slowed down a bit and turned around, worrying, just to find the other grinning at him a bit embarrassed. When they reached the bar, Nino ordered two glasses of sparkling water right away, earning a critical eyebrow by the barkeeper but nonetheless, two minutes later the drinks were placed in front of them.

"This must be exhausting," Nino chuckled as he clinked glasses with Sakurai, referring to the dancing crowd. "It’s been years since I last went to such a club."

"For me too," Sakurai laughed after he downed his water, thankful for the liquid running down his dry throat.

There were pearls of sweat on his forehead, the side of his cheeks, running down his neck... Nino’s eyes couldn’t help but follow one of the drops running over Sakurai’s chest, rolling down over this from the light slightly orange-tinted soft looking skin and getting soaked up by his black tank top.

"Eh?" the photographer asked, forcing himself to look up back into Sakurai’s eyes when he realized what he had been doing.

"I’ve never been dancing like this before. I must look like the biggest idiot in those photos," Sakurai said, biting his lower lip slightly and pointed at Nino’s camera but the other shook his head.

"Not at all!" Nino immediately blurted out. "You look great, I swear! Look!"

He switched on the screen of his camera again and just as he did during the supernatural shooting, Nino showed Sakurai some of the pictures and pointed out the good poses, good facial expressions, whatever he could find to make the other feel good - or embarrassed - about his model job. Sakurai cringed a bit, but all in all, he seemed satisfied with the results. He giggled a bit cutely before he cleared his throat.

"Wow, that actually doesn’t look as bad as I expected," the man said with a smile directed at Nino.

"Told you," the photographer just pouted slightly, smirking at the other.

"You know, I think you should try it too, it was actually pretty fun," Sakurai then suddenly suggested.

Nino arched an eyebrow. "Trying what?"

"Dancing, of course!" the other man replied and Nino blanked.

"No," he simply replied, shaking his head.

"Why not?" Sakurai pouted. "Your outfit screams to be shown off on the dance floor."

Nino felt his cheeks turning red. He hadn’t even dared to hope that Sakurai would even look at him directly but this?

"I’m not the type to show off," Nino said, waving his hand, though. "We have to do a few more photographs now. A short shooting at the bar?" he tried to change the topic and gladly, it seemed to work.

"With a drink in my hand or something like that?" Sakurai offered in return and Nino nodded.

"Yeah, yeah, just something simple as that."

The photographer then ordered two drinks - with alcohol this time, never mind Tacky - and just a minute later, Nino took a picture of Sakurai pretending to clink glasses with the lens of his camera while smiling his irresistible smile. After a few more pictures and a few drinks later (Sakurai was now sipping on his third alcoholic drink while Nino was halfway his first), the model tilted his head cutely, making puppy eyes at the photographer. Nino put down his camera, looking at the other man questioningly, and reached for his whisky on the rocks.

"Do you think we’re finished with the shooting?" Sakurai asked. "I’m exhausted, to be honest."

Nino chuckled. He had already noticed that Sakurai looked a bit drowsy. The heat in the club, the probably uncommon dance "exercise" and maybe even the alcohol seemed to add up and taking its toll. Nino let his eyes wander over the mass of chatting, dancing and flirting people until he spotted some of the others. Ohno and Aiba were still in the middle of the dance floor, Jun still taking pictures like crazy, Keiko with them. Further, Nino spotted Shige and Suzu along the bar, Suzu downing her obviously not first drink and Shige surprisingly looking a bit worried. It was unusual to see the artist showing that much emotion, Nino thought, but it was good to see that he would seemingly take care of Suzu in case the girl passed out from drinking too much. Tacky was nowhere to be seen and Nino seriously wondered, if he wasn’t somewhere on the upper floor examining the whole situation. He didn’t spot him when throwing a searching glance up to the bannisters at the right and left side of the club, but that didn’t mean anything, he could be somewhere in the crowd.

"I think we have quite a lot already, it should be sufficient," the photographer then said, nodding at Sakurai.

"OK, great," the man smiled. "So that means I’m free for the rest of the evening?"

Nino pursed his lips, taking another sip of his drink. So this was it, his "clubbing adventure"? The photo shoot was over and everybody would go home now? Not that it was contrary to Nino’s initial plan but... when his eyes took in Sakurai’s hot appearance again, he somehow wished the night wouldn’t be over so soon and that this man would keep him company for a little longer.

"Basically, yes."

Sakurai arched an eyebrow. "Basically?"

"Uhm... well," Nino started, before downing the rest of his drink.

He felt the alcohol of his drink burning down his throat and if he was honest, he already could feel the effect of that devilish drink in his slightly dizzy head. Probably, it would at least give him the courage he needed to say the next thing.

"Sakurai, uhm…"

"Yeah?"

"Do you want to stay a bit longer? For another drink, perhaps here the bar, without a camera?" Nino went for it full force.

The worst thing that could happen was that Sakurai said "no". Which would be pretty bad but... no risk no fun?

"Just you and me?" Sakurai asked, his expression unreadable.

"Yeah," Nino replied. "You and me and...," he pushed a little bowl of snacks that the barkeeper had brought to them in Sakurai’s direction. "This bowl of peanuts."

Sakurai chuckled slightly and let his look drop onto the small bowl before he reached his fingers to pick one up.

"Can you recommend a special drink, maybe?"

Nino tilted his head. "I heard that woman next to me saying that one of the seasonal drinks is supposed to be really good. I forgot the name though. Something with fresh summer fruits and mint or so…"

"Sounds like a sweet one," Sakurai nodded. Then he pointed at Nino’s empty whisky glass. "I thought you don’t like sweet things though?"

"Sometimes I’m making an exception," Nino replied with a racing heart, his eyes focused on Sakurai’s and for a few moments they fell into an awkward silence (well, as silent as it could be in a place like this). "The night is still young, isn’t it?" the photographer added, not taking his eyes off of Sakurai’s.

"Well...," the other man finally parted his gorgeous lips again in order to give a reply. "I’m curious about the taste so let’s try it."

Nino couldn’t help but smirk at his small victory.

"Good," he answered, his heart jumping happily in his chest as he ordered two of the said drink.

The two came a bit closer together now that there wasn’t any distance needed for the camera anymore and so that they could talk to each other a bit better, and when their drinks arrived, they were already in the middle of exchanging some weird old stories of failed club visits and whatnot. Nino had feared that he and Sakurai might not have much to talk about, but thankfully, he was wrong and soon they were talking about everything and anything under the sun, their throats slowly but surely sounding a little sore from being forced to speak - sometimes even yell - loudly, to be understood properly over the noise of the club.

It didn’t take long until they ordered the next drink and Nino would be a liar if he said he wasn’t getting drunk. He was glad that he had already stored away Camelot properly, the bag hanging queerly over his chest so that he wouldn’t lose or forget him. He soon found himself laughing about every little thing Sakurai was saying, he didn’t even know if it really was so funny or if it was just funny for no reason...

When Nino started swaying dangerously, Sakurai reached out his hands to support the other’s elbow. He chuckled.

"Ninomiya-san... You’re not good with alcohol, are you?" Sakurai asked, a bit amused.

"Obviously...," Nino murmured, elbows on the bar counter and almost knocking over his glass if Sakurai wasn’t quick enough in reflexes to catch it. "How come you can cope with alcohol s-so much better than I?"

"Well, I told you, when I go clubbing, I’m usually the guy at the bar with the drinks," Sakurai replied with a smile. "And when I’m out in the evenings after work with my colleagues, I don’t talk that much and instead... drink a couple of beers... I guess I’m just more used to it than you are."

Nino sighed deeply at the thought that his head would surely punish him for drinking the next day.

"Life is unfair..."

"You said that once already."

"It is, isn’t it?" Turning a bit to the other man, still placing his elbows a bit clumsily on the bar, Nino locked eyes with Sakurai.

"It’s unfair how cute you are when you’re drunk."

Nino blinked. His heart jumped.

He wasn’t sure if he had just imagined Sakurai saying something or if he heard right.

"...What?"

"...What?" Sakurai repeated after him, offering him a surprised look.

"Wha-what did you just say right now?" Nino wanted to confirm, not trusting the amount of alcohol in his brain anymore.

"Eh? I said nothing...," the other man replied, shaking his head slightly.

Nino narrowed his eyes.

"I’m pretty sure you said something about," he felt his cheeks blushing. "Me being cute when drunk... or probably I have misheard..."

"I’m... I’m pretty sure you have misheard..."

"Damned alcohol!" Nino cursed before he broke into laughter. "But you know what?"

"What?" Sakurai asked.

Nino looked right into the man’s eyes, his heart pounding up to his throat, but he just couldn’t hold it back.

"You are cute, even if you are not drunk."

Sakurai stared at him, puzzled. "...What?"

"What?" Nino repeated after him.

"Are you making fun of me?" Sakurai asked.

Nino wasn’t sure if he heard correctly, but the man’s voice seemed to be shaky.

"No, I’m not," he replied, honestly.

"What does that mean?" the other man asked further, his expression turned serious.

"It means...," Nino started slowly. "That obviously I’m actually drunk enough to confess to you that I think you’re cute."

He chuckled. He must be out of mind. No, he definitely was. But at least, he could blame the alcohol for it. Talking about it, Nino considered whether it would be better to get another drink or not...

"Then... maybe you didn’t mishear earlier," Sakurai finally replied, much to Nino’s surprise.

To be honest, the photographer had expected to be ignored or laughed at, instead.

"Are you sure?"

Was Nino imagining this or was Sakurai coming even closer? Their arms touched and when someone bumped into Nino from behind, the man found himself caught in Sakurai’s strong embrace who prevented him from falling over. His head had almost bumped into Sakurai’s chest, his hands were placed on the man’s strong upper arms - gosh where did that biceps come from?! Nino considered turning around and yelling at whoever it was who pushed him, but only for a second, seriously. As soon as he looked up into Sakurai’s warm eyes, feeling the heat of his body radiating and pulling him in, he didn’t care any longer.

"Maybe?" Sakurai said, seemingly not intending to let go off Nino.

The photographer took a deep breath. "You know...," he said, enforcing his grip on Sakurai’s arms. He didn’t even know what his brain was thinking and if he was still making sense, but his lips were loose and so he continued, not stopping them from speaking. "I’ll probably have forgotten everything that happened and what I said tonight anyway, with this amount of alcohol in my blood, so just tell me what you want."

"You’ll forget?" Sakurai asked to confirm, picking up on Nino’s line.

"Pretty sure...," the other said, fearing that it would become reality, as he remembered a few drunken black-outs from his early twenties.

Then, something completely unexpected happened, something Nino hadn’t even dared to dream of so far, something Nino would never have expected Sakurai to have enough courage - or even interest - to do. He was probably intending to fish for another few compliments from the other man - who didn’t like being called cute by a sexy man - but this was much more than Nino could have ever imagined.

First, Sakurai’s arms snaked around Nino’s back, making him lean into their unplanned embrace even more, before Sakurai lowered his head a little, closing his eyes and....

They kissed.

Nino couldn’t help but just stare at the close-up of the man in front of him, too busy with being surprised than properly feeling the sensation of their touching lips at the first moment. His heart was ready to explode as soon as he realized what was going on. His fingers clasped onto Sakurai’s arms, almost desperately, to stable himself, to prevent his weak knees from giving in, to keep the other close.

The kiss tasted of alcohol and an indefinable explosion of different fruit juices, and Sakurai’s lips were so incredibly soft, it was just amazing. Nino was holding his breath as if he wanted to freeze the moment. He felt his hands wandering up Sakurai’s arms, almost desperately, until they found their way to the slightly taller man’s neck and then, Nino finally dared to start kissing back. Because there was nothing else on his mind right now than kissing and kissing Sakurai, nothing else seemed to matter anymore.

Their kiss became more heated and Nino literally forgot about everything around him, his world consisting only of him and Sakurai, their joined lips hovering over each other’s mouths, their breath mixing, his heart almost exploding, his fingers touching the hot skin of the other man. Nino couldn’t even remember when he last kissed someone like that, but he was a hundred per cent sure that he didn’t want to forget this kiss ever.

They only parted lips when they ran out of breath. Nino’s arms, losing all of their strength, slipped down from Sakurai’s shoulders and they looked at each other, taking in deep breathes to recover. Nino’s lips were still slightly parted, feeling hot, wet, pulsating from the activity and there was this tickling feeling on them that made him want to repeat what he and Sakurai just did, over and over.

However, the short moment of separation took its chance to fill Nino’s brain not only with fresh air but also with the realization of what just happened and what it could probably mean. The possible reasons for this happening as well as the possible consequences ran through his grey cells, making them work on high speed, and when a conclusion formed in his mind, he almost stopped breathing from the shock.

Shit, no. Just, no. What did they do?!

Sakurai seemed to be similarly shocked and immediately let go of Nino, backing off a little, his expression turning into confusion. He lifted one of his hands to touch his lips, his eyes were searching for Nino’s, who had a hard time looking at the other now.

"I... I guess I should better take a taxi home now," the photographer said, slowly, before he turned to the counter and paid for his and Sakurai’s drinks.

He turned on his heels and parted his way through the crowd towards the exit of the club as fast as he could, without looking back and without even looking at Sakurai for one last time. He was so confused, so damned confused! Why did Sakurai kiss him?! Had he just been drunk, like him? Or did he like him?

It couldn’t be possible. They were just a photographer and his model for a stupid photo competition for his stupid boss for that stupid job he wanted him or Jun to take over. Nino didn’t even want that job. And what he wanted even less was this chaos of feelings that was spreading in his mind and heart at the moment.

Yes, he had to admit, he found Sakurai attractive. Yes, he had to admit, he even found him charming and very cute. Yes, probably he even had to admit that he had developed a tiny little crush on the man, as soon as he had peeled off his shell of shyness and self-doubt and showed Nino his true colours, his true potential. But that didn’t mean that they just could kiss. What was that even supposed to mean?! Did it mean that Sakurai liked him? Did he even like Sakurai - that way? If yes, would it mean that Sakurai would want to be with Nino?

But that was impossible, Nino thought as he was standing outside of the club, nervously waving for the next taxi to stop and take him home. It was impossible that they liked each other and even if, Nino wasn’t the type for a relationship or anything so what would he be able to offer the other man? Another kiss? Maybe even a one-night stand and then? Didn’t Nino even secretly hope to be able to see Sakurai again after this whole photo project was over, like... as friends probably? If they would take this a step further now, no, they probably took it too far already, everything would be ruined... was it already?

Damned.

When Nino arrived home, the flash of drunkenness that had left him for the last half an hour due to the shock of what happened, came back full force, making him incredibly tired. It was probably not even midnight, but Nino felt smashed. He took off his clothes as soon as he was home, throwing them into the washing machine to wash them over the weekend before handing them back to Aiba. That stupid "hot" outfit that he had wanted to wear to impress Sakurai - which had probably worked far better than expected. The photographer took a quick shower, trying to calm his mind and get rid of the sweaty sensation all over his body.

No, he wasn’t disgusted by the kiss with Sakurai - perish the thought! - but he was so so so confused that it was almost ridiculous. This shit was making everything so much more complicated right now and Nino wasn’t able to comprehend the situation, not with his brain filled with alcohol.

He let the cool water run down his face, his chest, cooling him down, calming him down, thinking that it would probably the best if he really forgot what happened this evening. Erased it from the world and kept on at the point at which he and Sakurai were a photographer and his model, and at maximum potential friends...

TBC


	7. Chapter 7

Nino wasn’t sure if it was actually a good thing or a bad thing when he woke up on Sunday, remembering last night as clear as if he recorded it with a video camera in his mind and had hit the replay button.

He was pretty sure though that he had to throw up and then go grab an aspirin if he wanted to survive the day. So he got up as fast as his dizzy head allowed him to, stumbled into his bathroom and greeted his toilet - with something different than the usual "Good morning, Tim".

He felt better afterwards and even if his way into the kitchen to go grab some hangover medicine looked dangerous, he somehow managed it, grabbed the aspirin and a glass of water, before settling down at the small breakfast table in front of the balcony door. He downed the medicine and then rested his head on top of his folded arms, groaning at the persistent pain in his head that hopefully would go away soon.

It didn’t take long before the memories decided to come back. Again. He had blocked them out when he was busy talking to the toilet, but now that he calmed down and the aspirin helped to clear his mind, there was enough space to fill it with yesterday night’s happenings.

The photoshoot, the crazy lights in the club, Jun and Aiba enthusiastically giving tips to Ohno and Sakurai on how to rock the dance floor (or at least not trip over someone else’s or their own feet) and the models’ dancing. How elegant and cool Ohno had looked while dancing like a pro - which was the first surprise of the evening - while at the same time Sakurai was looking rather lost on the dance floor, busy finding the right rhythm.

Nino recalled the flash of jealousy that ran through his veins when Ohno started to touch Sakurai "to help him with the dancing" and the two of them became so physically close to each other that Nino had a hard time not to jump between them. And then his conversation with Sakurai. The confession exchange that they found each other cute (even if Sakurai said that Nino was cute when drunk, so probably he didn’t find him cute otherwise, Nino heard his doubts debating) but then on the other hand, why would he... kiss him then?

Oh yes, they kissed. And how they kissed, oh my God. Nino had never expected Sakurai to be able to kiss like that. To kiss like a god, seriously. Or maybe Nino was just too drunk to properly rate that kiss they shared or was it just too long since he last kissed someone -

"No, shut up!" Nino spoke out loud as he sat up straight. It was an awesome kiss. Period.

Maybe, it was too awesome because Nino could feel his heartbeat speeding up as he lifted his fingers to let them slide over his lips, he found himself longing for another kiss from Sakurai. He fisted his hand and slammed it down onto the table, causing the empty glass in front of him to shake slightly. No, he wasn’t supposed to long for another kiss, he was supposed to have forgotten everything that happened last night, just as he had promised Sakurai. If not... things would become awkward between them, wouldn’t they?

Probably that was the solution. Nino said he would forget, and even if he apparently didn’t, he could at least pretend to have forgotten. It would save him and Sakurai a lot of explanation and embarrassment and pain, probably. So Nino decided to keep his memory a secret.

He of course didn’t know what was Sakurai thinking about the whole situation. He would most likely remember it since he hadn’t been nearly as drunk as Nino, but he probably didn’t want to talk about it, right? After all, he would have assumed that whatever he said or did, Nino would forget it and it wouldn’t have any deeper meaning anyway. So why bother making things strange between them?

"They are strange already, for fuck’s sake, you idiot!" Nino told himself again, loudly, before he brushed his hand over his face, trying to calm down.

There it was again, his old habit of talking to himself - even worse - arguing with himself, insulting himself. He took a deep breath, and another one, and another one and slowly, he seemed to calm down. He stood up, thankfully not feeling as dizzy as before, and grabbed his little watering can, getting ready to water his plants like every Sunday morning. Or midday, kitchen clock Ken corrected him. Fine, whatever, the photographer thought as he pushed open the small balcony door to greet his plants.

"You look pretty today," Nino told the strawberries hanging down from their pots in deep red, the colour reminding him of Sakurai’s shirt from last night. Nino sighed again and rubbed his forehead, but nonetheless continued with his task.

But seriously, who was he even trying to fool? It would be a huge lie if Nino was to say that he kissed Sakurai back just because he was drunk. He wanted to kiss him back so badly that he would have turned insane if he hadn’t, that much was for sure.

When Nino checked his phone about an hour later, he found a new LINE notification from his chat with Sakurai. Nino read it with slightly shaking hands and then sighed deeply. It was pretty clear that Sakurai wasn’t feeling well about what happened the previous night either. His message was overly polite and careful, he thanked Nino for the good work during the photo shooting, as always, asked him how he was doing and if he felt sick from the alcohol. There was nothing that hinted on the two of them kissing yesterday and Nino was pretty sure on how he should interpret that.

There was nothing to talk about, probably, whatever that might actually mean. Sakurai had probably just acted on a spontaneous idea, trying out his new-found confidence and courage and wanting to try kissing someone, probably it was just Nino’s (bad?) luck that he was with the man when he arrived at that decision?

In the same polite tone that his model used, Nino replied pretty much the same as the other, exchanging the question with the answer that he had a tiny hangover but was fine all in all.

Shortly after, Sakurai sent back a cute smiling sticker and a "Good to hear, I was worried when you almost crashed into the taxi’s door."

Nino slammed his hand against his forehead. Crap, so Sakurai had seen him?! Wait, did that mean that he followed him outside of the club? Why? Or was it just a coincidence since Sakurai had wanted to get home too? And there he was acting as the biggest clumps in front of the other man. OK, Sakurai was the king of clumsiness, he probably didn’t mind, reasoned Nino as he tried to soothe his embarrassment. And the man had written that he was worried, right?

Nino immediately shook his head in order not to think any further. He would probably just think himself into a spiral of trying to find some hints in Sakurai’s messages such as the other was really worried about him. That he really found him cute even if it was only when he was drunk, and that he probably even liked him, in another way other than just admiring him for whatever Nino still didn’t know what the other could ever admire him for. That the kiss was actually intended and sincere and... Fuck, this was so messed up, really.

When another notification popped up on his phone, Nino’s heart almost broke free from his ribcage when he read Sakurai’s next message.

"Do you remember what happened last night at the bar?"

Again, Nino’s hands started shaking a little and he had to enforce his grip around the phone in order not to let it drop onto his lap. Oh shit. Did Sakurai want to talk about the kiss after all?!

The photographer was about to freak out. What would the other want to talk about exactly? Did he want to tell Nino that nothing like that would ever happen again because it had been a mistake and they shouldn’t have done something like that (well, they really shouldn’t have) or that the kiss had been horrible because Nino’s breath was reeking from alcohol, or maybe that he accidentally bit Sakurai’s tongue and forgot to apologize or -

"Just want to confirm, since you said you will most likely have a black-out today," Nino read the next line as he hasn’t replied in the meantime, his mind still panicking.

He wondered. Would it really be best to pretend he didn’t remember? His brain tried to provide him with a pro- and con list of admitting that he remembered and Nino was reviewing it in high speed, trying to find the right solution.

He had to reply something to Sakurai at least, he couldn’t keep him waiting for too long, so what should he tell him? If he admitted that he still had a memory about the previous night and the kiss, he had no idea where the conversation would lead to. Probably nowhere nice... if he said, he couldn’t remember anything... Sakurai might leave the topic as it is and they would never ever talk about it.

Well, that didn’t sound like a nice option, Nino thought. At least, it was the easier option. Maybe the coward option as well, but he didn’t care. He couldn’t handle his fast-beating heart any longer, he would probably die from a heart attack if he had to continue this conversation with Sakurai!

"The only thing I remember is that we had a good photo shooting and that this drink with summer fruits and mint didn’t taste as bad as I expected," Nino typed on his phone, wondering for a second if that was enough before deciding that it had to suffice.

Shortly after, Sakurai’s reply came in. "You even forgot the name of the drink again?"

"See? I told you I’d forget everything if I drank too much," Nino replied, adding a fitting LINE sticker of a caricature embarrassingly rubbing his neck and a typical sweat drop covering the right corner of his head. "I hope I didn’t do anything inappropriate or I will have to apologize for things I don’t even know I did," he then added.

A few seconds later, a smiling sticker from Sakurai followed with another message.

"Don’t worry, nothing embarrassing happened. Have a nice Sunday and please tell me once you have some pictures ready or new information about further shoots."

"I’ll contact you, enjoy the rest of your weekend!"

Nino dropped his phone again, sighing in relief. So... that was probably it, he thought. His heart was still pounding, but slowly calming down. The topic was dead, or buried alive, whatever was the more fitting description, and he wouldn’t have to deal with it anymore. At least not together with Sakurai.

He was a coward.

\- + -

For some reason, Nino still couldn’t bring himself to tell Sakurai that there would not be another shooting after the one in the club and if the photographer was completely honest with himself, he didn’t want the photoshoot to be over and probably never see Sakurai ever again.

Nino would never admit it in front of other people but he wanted to see Sakurai, no, he was longing for that man. He wanted to kiss him again, probably, even if he had no idea if the other would agree in a sober state, or where this would bring them eventually... probably not far since they didn’t even talk about the last kiss, both pretending that it never happened. It wasn’t like Nino had fallen in love with that guy. It wasn’t like Nino wanted to start dating him or anything, of course not, but yeah, he wanted to see him again.

\- + -

With a freakishly fast-beating heart, Nino took the chance a few days later when he had the clubbing photos ready, and called Sakurai downstairs to the photo studio. The two of them then spent their lunch break together in front of Nino’s laptop, a can of iced coffee and some snacks in front of them and an awkward atmosphere between them, while skipping through the results of the photoshoot.

The strange atmosphere was brushed away soon though, thanks to Sakurai’s bright laughter that filled the back of the studio. Nino showed him some failed shoots that he would not include in his portfolio for Tacky, but they were truly funny. Nino, of course, didn’t intend to make fun of the other man, but he couldn’t bear the serious atmosphere and how better to break it than looking at something that would make the two of them laugh?

Thankfully, Sakurai was one of those people who were actually able to laugh at themselves, Nino wouldn’t have tried that move otherwise, but he remembered how funny the man had found the failed picture with the dog’s attack in the park, so it was worth the try. And apparently, it worked, Nino noticed, feeling relieved, allowing Sakurai’s laughter to fill his heart.

He looked at the man next to him, dressed in his usual boring grey suits, the usual thick black-framed glasses topping his nose and his slightly messed up hair. Nino suspected the other to have tried some of Aiba’s styling tips at home by himself, even if he only succeeded partly. However, Sakurai was adorable like always, Nino thought, scolding himself for his thoughts immediately before switching folders again and showing Sakurai the rest of the actual good pictures of the photoshoot.

Despite Nino’s complaints about Sakurai’s horrible dancing skills in the club, the photographer, of course, managed to capture some really really good shots. In those shots, Sakurai’s movements actually didn’t look as stiff as they might have been when he performed them, and his face looked really good on them. Not only the photos taken on the dance floor (with or without Ohno, even if Nino had to admit that he didn’t like the ones showing the two men dancing together that much) turned out great. Some photos of Sakurai standing at the bar, smiling nonchalantly while holding his fancy drink, looking at the barkeeper or the beautiful woman sitting next to him on a high stool, flirting with him (it was Keiko and it was faked, so Nino was fine with that), looked great too.

The lights in the club had been both, boon and bane of the shooting. It was a big challenge to catch the right lightings with the camera, shootings in the dark were tricky. On the other hand, the different lightings had worked with the whole scene just to the right amount, changing colours, changing the atmosphere and creating several different nuances that added different effects onto the pictures.

To sum it up, Sakurai looked extremely hot in those pictures and he was totally rocking the photoshoot. His handsome face, his gorgeous body, everything set into the right light by Aiba’s styling skills, were stunning. If Nino had told Aiba once that Sakurai wasn’t his type, because he didn’t have a type he might have to take back his statement. If he didn’t have a type thus far, he definitely had a type now.

Nino sighed deeply once Sakurai left to go back to work, with a big smile on his face, still thinking that there would be another photoshoot soon. Again, Nino hadn’t managed to tell the other the truth. He leant back in his chair, wondering what should he do about the situation with Sakurai. Would they be able to go on just like that? Would Nino be able to forget about the kiss? How was Sakurai feeling about it? Nino knew it was his decision to pretend he didn’t remember what happened, but the fact was, Sakurai was the one who decided to accept that instead of confronting him with the topic himself. What the hell was that supposed to mean!? For once, Nino almost regretted that he was such a coward. Probably, those questions would follow him forever now.

Suddenly, Nino felt two hands pressing on his eyes from behind and he instinctively lifted his own to grab the attacker, just to be stopped by the sound of Aiba’s amused voice.

"Who am I?" the stylist asked playfully, and if it wasn’t his voice that exposed him right away, it would have been his trademark chuckle for sure.

"Aiba, stop playing children’s games with me, please," Nino sighed, letting his arms sink back in his lap again. "I’m not in the mood for something like this..."

"You don’t seem in the mood for anything," Aiba pouted slightly, pulling back his hands and taking a seat in another rolling chair, rolling it towards his friend. "What’s wrong?"

Nino looked at his best friend, not sure if he should be annoyed or grateful for the fact that the man was able to see through him so well.

"Nothing," he decided to say for now, not sure if he was ready to talk to his friend about the mess that his life had turned into during the past few days.

"Did you fight with Sakurai or something?" the other didn’t let go.

"What?" Nino frowned, surprised that Aiba was able to connect his mood to the model. He must be so easy to read, should he be embarrassed? But then, Aiba already suspected that he had developed a liking for Sakurai so he probably shouldn’t be so surprised.

"The atmosphere between you two was somehow... different," the stylist then said, crossing his arms and making a thinking face. "So I wondered if something happened between you two."

Well, something, yes, but...

"I think, there are some... let’s say unclear things between us," Nino decided to admit, without planning to give away any more details. That should be enough for now.

Aiba hummed, acknowledging before he patted Nino’s shoulder and flashed him a cheering smile. "Then you probably should talk it out, don’t you think?"

Nino chuckled. He liked Aiba’s simple mind somehow. For that guy, things often were so easy, it was admirable. If there was a problem, then you should go and find the solution (if Aiba didn’t have it already). Maybe, Aiba was right. He could always decide to no longer pretend that he had forgotten about the kiss and ask Sakurai for a clearing conversation, right?

"Thanks, Aiba, I guess I should do so."

\- + -

If things were just as easy as they sounded out of Aiba’s mouth, Nino thought desperately a few hours later, pondering over another LINE message that he had planned to send Sakurai in order to ask him for the chance for a proper talk. But somehow he just couldn’t find the right words...

In the end, Nino did something that was probably pretty stupid because it meant that another lie would need to be cleared between them, and he took up the topic of the next photoshoot in order to have something he could start with.

"The next photoshoot topic has been decided," Nino typed on his phone. "It’s "home" and we are supposed to portray our models in a homely atmosphere so you can choose if you’d rather like to do it in your apartment or mine, please let me know."

Nino re-read the message before sending it, his phone in one hand, his cheek being squeezed by his other hand and his heart ready to jump out from his chest. He wasn’t really going to do this, was he? A meeting in one of their apartments would give them the chance to have a talk just the two of them without any witnesses so the idea itself was probably not bad but wasn’t that much too private somehow? Yeah, it was. They could also go out for a cup of coffee and talk in a cafe in which nobody around them would pay attention to them anyway so... Yeah, this was a stupid idea, wasn’t it? A really stupid -

"What are you doing, Nino, worrying about the competition?" Jun suddenly slapped his colleague’s shoulder, making Nino jump in surprise and in this connection, he hit the send button on the touch screen of his cell phone.

"NO!" Nino screamed immediately once he realized what he just did, staring at his phone’s screen in disbelief for seconds. This didn’t happen, did it?! But there it was - the sent message. "JUN!"

The photographer whirled around, glaring at his colleague who lifted his hands in surrender and lifted his thick eyebrows in confusion.

"Yo man, chill! You’re quite edgy, aren’t you?" Jun asked and Nino could see that the man was burning to add another stupid comment, but at the sight of Nino’s furious face, he probably decided to keep it for later.

Nino just let out a noise of frustration and stomped away in order not to leash his anger out on Jun. For once, it wasn’t his fault, and Nino didn’t intend to pick a fight for anything.

Sakurai’s reply, which came about two hours later, possibly when the other was going home from work, was killing Nino.

"Tbh, my apartment is quite boring... I bet a photographer’s apartment is much better arranged. I’m even a bit curious. :)"

How was Nino supposed to get out of this now?!

\- + -

"Oh wow! This is even more beautiful than I imagined!" Sakurai said, stunned, as he stepped into Nino’s living room, wearing an old pair of guest house-shoes that the photographer found in a far back corner of his closet.

"Don’t exaggerate, Sakurai," Nino said, waving his hand, trying to sound nonchalant.

His apartment wasn’t that special, he thought, it was nicely equipped, yes, and Nino was a neat person, there are the green plants and flowers here and there, the photographs on the walls, books, DVDs and games neatly arranged in the shelves in the living room, a few fluffy cushions on the sofa... OK, his apartment was probably a bit more than the typical single apartment, but it was Nino’s haven, his favourite place on earth, of course, he had arranged it to look nice!

"Did you clean up especially for the photo shoot?" Sakurai asked with a smirk, facing the photographer, who blushed a little.

"Well, a bit, of course," Nino said matter-of-factly, "It’s a photo shoot after all."

"Hmmm," Sakurai hummed, turning his head into every possible direction. "I really like it."

"Thanks."

"So how exactly will this shooting look like? I didn’t even know what to wear, so I brought a few things...," the model said, pointing at a bag that was probably holding some clothes to change.

Sakurai had accompanied Nino home after work, a few days after the photographer had accidentally sent him the "invitation" for the next photo shoot, and so, Sakurai was still wearing his suit from work.

"Uhm, I thought about something really casual," Nino said, nodding towards the bag to encourage Sakurai to open the bag and show him what he brought with him.

The model did, placing the bag on Nino’s couch and unzipping it before reaching for the first set of clothes. The photographer wasn’t surprised when the other pulled out a horrible t-shirt and a definitely not matching pair of sweatpants, followed by a simple white dress shirt, a terrifying knitted jumper showing a cat’s silhouette, a pyjama and a normal - for once usable - pair of blue jeans.

"You really thought about everything, didn’t you?" Nino chuckled as he took in the variety of clothes of which half of them he was tempted to rip from his couch and stuff into a trash bag.

He sighed, wondering if this was the right time to tell Sakurai that all of this was a farce. He wanted to tell him that they didn’t need to do this photoshoot for real and that he was sorry for lying to him and sorry for lying about not remembering the kiss and that he wanted, needed to talk about that if he didn’t want to turn insane. But his tongue was tied.

"Well...," Sakurai smiled cutely, scratching his neck. "I guess it was not helpful though..."

"No no, it’s good," Nino immediately said. "It’s just... I think we won’t have to use all of those," he added with a smile.

Soon after, Sakurai had changed into his blue jeans and the white dress shirt. He rolled up the sleeves and opened a few buttons of the shirt to make it look more casual. Nino had applied just a bit of make-up on the model’s face and worked a bit of hair wax into the dark strands of hair to give it a bit of styling. The result was much more natural and far from the perfection Aiba used to achieve with his styling and make-up skills. But that was completely fine, Nino told the other, it was exactly what he wanted (not to mention that the pictures from this particular photo shoot will probably never leave Nino’s SD card anyway).

They started with some pictures of Sakurai going around taking a look at various things, taking out a few books from the shelves, flipping through the pages, and even of Sakurai watering some of Nino’s plants a bit (not too much though since they got plenty on Sunday already, Nino insisted).

Through these pictures, Sakurai seemed to feel almost at home in Nino’s apartment and somehow this made Nino’s heart cringe involuntarily. He was scared at the thought of how much he enjoyed having that man around here, where the hell did that come from and where the hell was this leading to? Nino tried to ignore it and tried to focus on their fake shooting, which he was probably enjoying a bit too much.

When Sakurai ended up on Nino’s couch with the gaming controller in his hand and playing a round of Super Smash Brs., it was just too much for the photographer. He was positioned right in front of the TV-screen - partly blocking it for Sakurai which resulted in the man yelling and cursing playfully about losing his match without having a chance to properly play the game - so that Nino had the perfect view. Seeing the man enjoying one of his own favourite hobbies hit him right in the heart and he would love to join him for a round or two at that very moment.

"Move a bit closer to Haruka, please," Nino grumped in order to distract his thoughts and made a gesture towards the right side of the couch.

Sakurai paused the game and frowned at the photographer. "Haruka?"

"Yeah, Haru- uhm...," Nino blushed when he realized what he did. Damned, this is what happened if you’re not focused on your task! Damn it! "I mean... the plant to your left."

Sakurai turned his head and looked at the small palm tree standing next to him. He blinked before facing back at Nino.

"Wait, your plant is called Haruka?"

"Well... yes?"

"Do you give names to all of your plants?" Sakurai asked in surprise.

Nino tilted his head, wondering if there was a way to get out of this embarrassing situation but when he saw Sakurai’s sincerely interested face without any hint of judging him, he couldn’t help but give an honest answer. "Apparently, I do...," he said in a low voice, letting his camera sink.

"I see," Sakurai replied, his lips forming a smile. "That’s cute."

"Shut up, Sakurai and keep posing!" Nino replied, blushing slightly and getting in position again, hiding behind his camera.

Afterwards, they went into the kitchen and in between chatting, drinking a couple of cans of beer that Nino had bought especially for this "event", and taking pictures, they started cooking a simple pasta dish with tomato sauce and fresh herbs from Nino’s kitchen. Nino was joking about if Sakurai was even able to cook pasta, and apparently, he wasn’t, which resulted in Nino having to jump in to save the noodles from getting over-cooked, and a huge tomato stain on Sakurai’s white dress shirt, which caused Nino to break into laughter. While eating, they hid the red stain with a small towel that Sakurai stuffed into his open collar while eating - which looked quite cute by the way - so it wasn’t any problem. Thankfully, Nino was a much better cook than Sakurai and so, the dinner tasted quite good, at least. However, the situation was kind of absurd, Nino thought.

This was more like a dinner date than anything else, he cursed internally, wondering how he had even managed to move them into such a situation. At least, Sakurai didn’t seem to realize, he still thought that this was an official shooting for the challenge. Which was a lie. A big lie that was starting to nibble on Nino’s soul, topped with tomato sauce. He really should tell the other man the truth or he would probably become really angry at the photographer... if Sakurai even could get angry, that is. Nino seriously wondered. He only got to know the shy, nice man, lacking self-esteem, that gradually built up into a healthy self-confidence, the charming smiles and laughter, the clumsiness... nothing pointed at Sakurai having an angry nature so maybe he would just laugh and call Nino an idiot. Maybe...

But Nino stayed a coward. In order to continue the shooting, Sakurai went into Nino’s bedroom, changing into his pyjama trousers and a t-shirt that Nino gave him (because according to his opinion it looked just too shoddy to wear matching trousers and shirt). When he finished changing, Nino entered the room and they began taking some pictures of Sakurai lying on Nino’s bed, reading books and pretending to sleep.

This was just ridiculous, Nino thought, now he even got Sakurai in his bed - and probably not the way he wanted him - instead of confessing the fact that this photo shooting didn’t even exist. And how awkward would it be actually telling him right now? So obviously, Nino didn’t have any other choice than to keep on going (sure, his inner voice noted ironically).

He gave a few more instructions to Sakurai, changed his own position a few times to get the different angles properly and it just happened then when Sakurai rolled over from one side to the other, the man was a bit too enthusiastic and ended up falling from the bed - landing on Nino and his camera.

"Ouch," Nino murmured after hitting his head on the bedside table, as he instinctively tried to back off as fast as he could in order to protect his camera.

"Oh gosh, Ninomiya-san, I’m sorry!" Sakurai apologized as soon as he sat up, facing the photographer who was rubbing the back of his head. "Are you hurt?"

"It’s OK, don’t worry," Nino replied, chuckling at the absurd situation. He should have expected it; he was shooting with Mr Super Clumsy after all.

"I’m - I’m really sorry, did I damage something?!" the other asked, pointing at Nino’s camera that the other had shielded with his hand.

Nino carefully checked it, but thankfully, everything was fine except a small smear on the lens that he immediately wiped off before he placed the tool on his bedside table once knowing that it’s safe.

"No no, everything’s fine, don’t worry."

"OK, good," Sakurai smiled, relieved.

"Seriously, you’re so clumsy! Did you get hurt?" the photographer then asked.

"No," Sakurai shook his head and the two of them got up, sitting down next to each other on the edge of the bed. "I’m sorry..."

"Don’t be," Nino waved off.

"No," the other man started stammering. He scratched his neck again, as he did so often when he was nervous. "Actually I mean... for what happened in the club."

Nino froze. Could he really be talking about... he turned to face Sakurai and for a moment, they locked eyes.

"You mean... the kiss?"

"Do you do remember," Sakurai said in a low voice and Nino wasn’t sure if it was relief or regret that he heard in the man’s voice.

The photographer took a deep breath. He could feel his heart beating on his tongue. "Yep. Sorry I didn’t tell you..."

Sakurai laughed, but his voice was a bit shaky. At least, Nino thought, he wasn’t the only one being nervous here.

"It’s OK, I wasn’t sure if you would remember or not or if you would like to talk about it if yes and so -"

"In fact," Nino chimed in, thinking that it was now or never. "I do remember it very well."

"I’m sorry."

"No, please," he shook his head. "Don’t be. It’s nothing to be sorry about."

Sakurai averted his eyes, his fingers were hooked into each other, pressing together and making his knuckles go white.

"You’re not mad?"

"No, I’m not. Not at all. We...," Nino searched for an excuse, trying to make the situation a bit easier for the two of them. "We were a bit drunk, weren’t we?"

"You were drunk. I was a bit tipsy, at most," the other man admitted.

"That’s enough to blame the alcohol, isn’t it?" Nino smirked.

"Maybe," Sakurai replied, facing Nino and locking eyes again. Then, unexpectedly, he added in a low voice, "Will you be mad at me if I want to do it again?"

"W-What?"

Nino blanked, not sure if he heard correctly. His heartbeat was now so loud that he feared, Sakurai could hear it too. So it wasn’t just him? It wasn’t just him who wanted to repeat that, even if he tried to tell himself something different? He couldn’t believe it...

"Ninomiya-san... you see, I really admire you and I-," Sakurai started but he wasn’t able to even finish his sentence because Nino was leaning forward, his hands cupping Sakurai’s face and bringing their lips closer for a kiss.

Sakurai didn’t struggle - of course not, instead, he instinctively turned his body a little to be able to reply better to Nino, and let his hands find their way to Nino’s hips, holding on to him. When Nino pulled back to look at the other, it didn’t last long before Sakurai pulled him back into another kiss and they soon were all over each other, hungry for more kisses.

Nino’s hands wandered from Sakurai’s face over his neck to the back of his head, burying in his dark hair, and Sakurai was pressing their bodies closer and closer, until they somehow lost balance and fell backwards onto the mattress, not caring at all and not even breaking their current kiss. On top of Sakurai and his eyes closed, Nino let himself dive into that kiss completely, he gasped for air when their lips parted just for a few seconds, he moaned into their kiss, his heart was overflowing from excitement, his body was getting hot, it was unbelievable. He couldn’t remember when was the last time that he desired someone as much as he desired Sakurai right now.

"I’m sorry," Nino hissed in between two breathes, opening his eyes again to look right into Sakurai’s beautiful dark brown eyes. He knew he must be red as a tomato, but right now, he didn’t care. "I guess it’s the alcohol again. You know, the beer..."

"It’s fine, I had some too," Sakurai hissed, reaching his hand up to Nino’s cheek, brushing it slightly before he put it into the man’s neck and slightly pulled him down for another kiss. "So let’s blame the alcohol."

It turned out they would have to blame a lot on the alcohol, as Nino quickly found out, as things didn’t stay at simply sharing hot kisses, no, they went even further.

Nino really didn’t plan this, no, but who would knock a hot guy like Sakurai off the bed if there was the chance for... well... more? He would be stupid to do so and so he didn’t and allowed himself to get carried away by the situation. It wasn’t even completely clear who was the one pushing the action further, it was reciprocal and whether it was the alcohol or something else, didn’t matter for the moment. Everything that mattered now was how to get each other out of their clothes and under the sheets.

It didn’t take long until Nino’s hands were hovering over Sakurai’s bare chest, tickling the soft skin, trailing down with his fingers, following the fine line of hairs that formed an inviting way path from his belly button to his already erected and with a condom covered member.

Nino leaned down one more time to kiss Sakurai’s pulpous lips before he got up and concentrated on slowly lowering himself on Sakurai’s cock. He had already prepared himself well, both of them being too heated up and too impatient for long foreplay, but it was OK. While Nino was holding his breath for a few moments, his eyes closed, frowning at the thickness that penetrated his body, first a bit painful, but soon spreading a pleasant sensation, Sakurai moaned shamelessly.

He tried to hold back not to rock up into Nino’s body right away, his fingers painfully digging into the flesh of the man’s hips as they slowly connected. Nino allowed himself to breathe again once he went all the way down before he started moving slightly. First tiny movements, back and forth, to get used to the feeling inside him, then he lifted and lowered himself, speeding up with each movement as he was riding Sakurai faster and faster, making the man almost lose his mind.

They didn’t want to end it too fast though, so in between, they decided to change into a bit more comfortable position. His legs spread, his butt slightly lifted by the help of a cushion that he had stuffed under his lover’s belly, Nino was now ready to get driven into the mattress, welcoming each of Sakurai’s strong thrusts with a moan.

He had never dreamed about this, not even once he had dared to, but now it was real and it was so so good. He felt Sakurai’s cock buried deep inside him, felt his hot, sweaty skin hitting his buttocks, felt the heat radiating from Sakurai’s chest at his back and Sakurai’s sloppy kiss as the man buried his face at Nino’s neck. His own hand guided down to his erection, Nino started touching himself, knowing that they were both close, so close, and indeed it didn’t take long until Sakurai pulled in a sharp breath right next to Nino’s ear, stiffened, and finally reached his climax, pouring his seed inside his lover’s body, until he collapsed on Nino’s back. He then made the two of them roll onto their sides, pushed away the cushion from underneath Nino’s belly, and wrapped his hand around the photographer’s cock, letting it run up and down his length, making the other scream and wriggle in his embrace, until he came too, loud and hot, spreading his cum all over his bedsheets.

Their breath and the smell of sex was filling the room after their climax. Nobody spoke, they were just lying there together, lazily, Sakurai’s arm still wrapped around Nino from behind, his hand now resting on Nino’s belly, which was still lifting and lowering quickly in the rhythm of his breath.

"Say," Sakurai started after a few minutes after they had calmed down and Nino was almost ready to fall asleep. When the photographer hummed, the model continued. "Are there something else that you give names?"

Nino frowned a little before forcing his eyes open. Sakurai was lying on his side now, facing him. "What do you mean?"

"You give your plants nicknames, so I thought maybe you also do that with other things."

Nino rolled on his back and closed his eyes again, just for a few seconds. "Don’t laugh at me, please, but yes, I do."

"All of them?" Sakurai asked curiously.

Nino slightly shook his head. "Most of them."

"That’s impressive," the other man chuckled. "And how do you decide whether to name things or not?"

"It depends on if I plan to spend my life with them or not," Nino said, turning his head again and grinning at Sakurai. "Joking. Well, half-joking. I don't name a plastic spoon if I throw it away after eating, and I don’t name the toilet paper or something like that. But things that I intend to keep and become part of the inventory of my apartment."

"Like the coffee machine?" the model suggested.

"For example."

"Or your cell phone?"

"That too, yes."

"What else?"

Nino tilted his head. "My camera. He’s called Camelot."

"Fancy!" Sakurai crawled a bit closer. He smiled, but it was sincere and there was no teasing in his voice, just pure curiosity. "What about the refrigerator?"

"Of course!" Nino chuckled.

"How’s he called?"

They exchanged a smile. "Are you thirsty?" Nino asked.

"A bit."

The photographer rolled onto his side and suggested, "We can go grab a drink in the kitchen and I’ll introduce you to Reynard."

Sakurai chuckled amused. "It’d be my pleasure!"

\- + -

The next morning still felt like a haze for Nino. He didn’t know what he and Sakurai did last night would mean for the future, he didn’t want to think about that yet. It had been a great night, awesome even, but Nino didn’t want to think further and just enjoy the moment. Gladly, he hadn’t freaked out when he woke up next to the other man. He’d rather been happy, somehow. And what was the first thing Nino did?

Right, grabbing his camera, he took a secret picture of Sakurai really sleeping, one more adorable picture for his collection of photos that will never be shown to anyone...

This continued during breakfast when Nino took a picture of Sakurai who was slurping his coffee with his bed hair standing on the edge and his glasses sitting slightly off on his nose. He looked just too adorable.

Somehow, Nino still hoped that nothing would have changed between them. He was definitely not ready for any commitment after this one-night stand, and most likely, Sakurai wasn’t interested in more either. Or so Nino tried to make himself believe until he was told something different. He was about eating a half-boiled egg on a small bowl of white rice, but Sakurai didn’t touch his own breakfast and instead kept on staring at Nino as if he wanted to say something but didn’t really know how to start.

When Nino arched his eyebrows questioningly and put down his half-eaten bowl of rice and egg, Sakurai cleared his throat and put down his mug of coffee too.

"Nino…," Sakurai started and Nino stiffened a little on the realization that the other man had just called him by his nickname, something he did yesterday too once. "I have something to confess to you."

The photographer swallowed, not sure if he liked the direction that this was going. "To confess?" he asked before he tried to fire up the suddenly serious atmosphere between them. "Were you a virgin until yesterday, or what? Because if that’s the case, it didn’t show."

"I take this as a compliment then," Sakurai chuckled but was back to his serious face faster than expected. "No, what I meant is… you remember the time we met on the elevator?"

Nino nodded carefully. "When you tried to talk to me and I didn’t even realize it?"

"Yeah, that time. It wasn’t the first time we rode the elevator together, you know?" Sakurai smiled at him, a bit embarrassed.

Nino froze. He knew that Sakurai must know him longer already than he knew Sakurai. He knew that the man had been trying to approach him because he had decided on him being his role model and wanted to become a man more confident. Looking back now, Nino remembered exactly how the man tried to talk to him in the elevator, and it was just natural that that probably had not been the first time.

"I didn’t know it back then but I figured after Jun told me that you used to stalk me. He thought you had a crush on me, not that you simply admire my attitude," Nino still didn’t understand how this was even possible. That someone really picked him as a role model but apparently, Sakurai had.

"Maybe he wasn’t that wrong with his assumption…," Sakurai said, carefully averting his eyes.

"What?" Nino asked barely audible.

"I said that I admire you, right?" the other man asked and Nino nodded in confirmation. "That you’re so cool and confident and that I want to become like you but to be honest," he took a deep breath. "I also desired you. For a long time already. You... you’re totally my type you know?"

No... Nino thought. No, he didn’t know. Well, he assumed that Sakurai didn’t find him disgusting or he wouldn’t have slept with him or even kissed him but seriously, no, he didn’t know. And for some reason, it made Nino very nervous, and not the good kind of nervous...

"Are you being serious?" he asked, his voice shaking slightly.

"I’m being absolutely serious," Sakurai said and Nino had never seen the other being so convinced about something, so confident...

"So you indeed had a crush on me," he murmured.

"I still have," Sakurai kept on, sincerely. "Just that it became much more serious."

"You…," oh no.

"To be honest, I wanted to ask you if you… when this project is over, I don’t want to stop seeing you. I mean, do you think we can –"

Oh no no no, no -

"Wait a minute!" Nino cut Sakurai’s word, his hands lifted, his head spinning, his heart beating, in panic. "Are you trying to tell me that you’re in love with me?!"

"That’s what this conversation is about. And... what yesterday night was about."

Nino freaked out. "You said, we’re blaming the alcohol!"

Sakurai blushed. "Maybe you needed it as an excuse, but to be honest, I didn’t!" he blurted out his confession. "I was dreaming about this since the first time I saw you walking around in that office complex... you were the reason why I wanted to get out of bed every morning and into that damned company that’s lead by my brother who always overshadows me. You were the one who pulled me out of that shadow and made me dream... the simple dream of maybe one day being able to be with you made me want to change. I wanted to become someone who was worthy of your attention, your... love..."

Nino was staring right in Sakurai’s eyes, horrified. His hands clasped in front of his mouth as he listened to Sakurai’s confession, his heart being ripped apart by the biggest joy he felt in years and the simple overwhelming fear that was welling up his chest. He felt memories coming back, memories of his broken family, his vow to make it better than his parents did, and then of all those failed attempts in relationships in his past... The exciting beginnings, the sweet first weeks, maybe months in one case, and then, the big collapse, over and over again... Not every relationship works as well as Jun and Aiba’s, Nino knew that better than anyone else, especially not, if he was part of said relationship. He was unable to have a proper relationship, just like his parents, and sooner or later he would destroy his and his partner’s happiness, for sure.

Why, why did he allow himself to get dragged into this? Why did he allow himself to taste this when he knew exactly that it wasn’t for him and why did he have to drag someone's sincere feelings into this? Now he would have to hurt in order to protect both of them. Why didn't he notice Sakurai's feeling sooner? He would have never allowed things to go this far then…

"Oh Gosh, Sakurai," Nino finally stammered. He made a horrible mistake. He wasn’t sure if he could still minimize the damage or if it was too late already, but this time, he had to be honest, at least. "I – I’m sorry but… I, for me, this was just…"

"Just what?" Sakurai asked nervously, and Nino could literally witness how the confidence in the other man ebbed down more and more. "When we… yesterday, when we… I thought, you like me back."

"It’s not that I hate you," Nino tried to find the right words. "But... what happened yesterday, how shall I put it, it was more like… we went with the flow, didn’t we? The shooting, the alcohol, the memory of the kiss in the club..."

"So it didn’t mean anything to you?" Sakurai asked, his voice slightly cracking along with his heart.

"It...," it hurt Nino to say it, but he didn’t have a choice. "It didn’t mean anything to me… I’m sorry..."

Internally, Nino’s heart was screaming but his brain tried to shut it up, replaying all those painful memories from his past relationships over and over. It was useless. Why try it again if it was useless from the beginning?

Sakurai just looked at Nino in disbelief. He swallowed visibly and tried to collect himself before he replied. "I see. OK, sorry, my bad then… seems I misunderstood."

No, Nino wanted to say, no, Sakurai didn’t misunderstand but he couldn’t tell him.

"It’s not your fault," Nino added in a low voice, trying to make better what couldn’t be improved by anything.

Sakurai let out a bitter chuckle and for a second Nino thought that Sakurai’s eyes were wet but the man averted his look and he couldn’t properly see it.

"It’s always my fault, Ninomiya-san," the man said in a sad voice, switching back to the formal way of addressing. "It’s OK, I’m used to this. I’m just never good enough. For no-one."

It was as if Nino could feel Sakurai’s pain in combination with his own and it paralyzed him. No, it wasn’t Sakurai’s fault at all, he was a wonderful person, charming, loving, cute, sexy... Nino was the problem here. He wasn’t ready for something like this. This wouldn’t work out. It never worked out. He wasn’t made for people. He wasn’t made for relationships. In the end, it would just crumble...

When Sakurai stood up with a huge sigh and a murmured "It can’t be helped," Nino had to suppress the urge of reaching out for Sakurai’s arm and pulling him back, but how should he explain that if he didn’t want to invite him into a relationship? It was useless.

"By the way," Sakurai chuckled, trying to offer Nino a smile, which was heart-breaking. "Elijah, that’s the nickname you gave the elevator at work, right?"

Nino nodded but didn’t reply.

"I’d wished you’d give me a nickname too."

"Sakurai..." the photographer then murmured. "We should stop here before –"

"Before what, someone gets hurt?" the other man cut him off. "I don’t want to pretend. When you said that last night didn’t mean anything to you, you already hurt me. It’s too late."

"Sakurai," Nino frowned, wondering what would be the right thing to say at this moment. Of course, nothing came to his mind.

"Please, don’t," the other said, knowing himself that nothing right could be said now. "I get it, OK? It’s not the first time someone rejects me. Far from it."

Sakurai turned to make his way to the bedroom to grab his clothes. He stormed into the bathroom to change and then hurried into the living room to pick up his bag, stuffing his clothes into it and turned on his heel without saying another word.

"Sakurai!" Nino tried once more when the other reached the apartment door, ready to go out.

He just stopped for a second after putting on his shoes and turned to give Nino one last, hurt look.

"Farewell, Nino."

TBC


	8. Chapter 8

For the next few weeks, Nino felt like a piece of shit. He tried to convince himself that he did the right thing when he rejected Sakurai. That in the end, it was the best decision for him and for Sakurai, in order to prevent them from getting disappointed and unhappy in a relationship that wouldn’t work out anyway. But why did it feel so bad then? If Nino did the right thing, why did it hurt so much? Nino had cried, he felt angry and immensely grumpy and it wasn’t too surprising that Aiba knew exactly where that was coming from. He just knew Nino too well.

“Nino, you can’t go on like this. You’re like this for weeks now, you’re scaring away your clients and your friends," Aiba said.

Nino had unleashed his anger onto Jun and fought with him at work, first thing in the morning, for no real reason. It was a very untypical behaviour for Nino, who usually tried to avoid arguments and everyone was surprised. Everyone but Aiba.

“Jun isn’t my friend," Nino grumbled, as he saw Aiba joining him on the balcony where he had fled to calm down his nerves.

His best friend sighed. “I know you and Jun have a complicated friendship but you’re still friends, doesn’t matter if you accept it or not. Here, no caffeine for you today, you need to chill," Aiba said, reaching his hand to Nino and giving him a cup of herbal tea.

“That’s nice, thank you," the photographer said in a slightly sarcastic tone but took the tea nonetheless.

“Oh Nino, why not give it a try at least?" Aiba asked him in a low voice as he settled down on the bench next to Nino, joining him to look at the view over the city.

“It wouldn’t work," Nino grumbled, knowing well that his friend was talking about Sakurai.

“I told you, you can’t know that!"

“And I told you I do know," Nino answered stubbornly.

It happened too often. There was a reason why Nino hadn’t fallen in love for such a long time. And now that he had allowed it to happen - well, not allowed, it just... happened - it brought him only misery (and a freaking hot one-night stand AND a bunch of freaking awesome kisses, the voice in his head made sure to remind him, stabbing his heart even more). And he hurt someone else. Which only proved once more that he was just a helpless case in love matters.

“I’m sure you’ll regret it," Aiba murmured, sipping his coffee. “If you ask him now... I’m sure he will still give you a chance."

Nino chuckled bitterly. “Don’t try to cheer me up. It’s a useless cause, Aiba, I know that if there was a tiny little chance, I have ruined it myself. But better early than after three years of relationship. I wouldn’t survive another breakup like last time."

“You’re traumatized," Aiba sighed. “That’s... understandable. Getting betrayed and then thrown out of the joint apartment... it wasn’t even your fault and no, don’t say again that the one who gets betrayed is the one to blame, that’s absolutely bullshit," the stylist pointed at Nino before the other could even part his lips. “I know you were hurt and blamed yourself because you think you're no better than your parents and that’s understandable but you cannot simply assume that every relationship will end like that. You cannot assume that every potential partner is a jerk like your ex and will betray you! In fact, you are the jerk in this situation. I mean, did you really not know that Sakurai likes you? How blind are you? He “admired" you, yes, he said that. But you didn’t see how he looked at you. That wasn’t simple admiration, he's in love with you."

“Good that you say that now," Nino snorted, surprised that he could even pronounce some words, with that huge lump in his throat, accumulation of uncried tears and old memories.

“Well, you know, I thought you have fallen for him too so I didn’t see the problem. I thought you have finally overcome your shitty past relationships and will give love another chance. I didn't know that you would be the biggest idiot under the sun and ruin what you had with Sakurai," Aiba exploded and Nino stared at him with big eyes.

Probably, that was the first time that Aiba had scolded Nino like this and it was good that he did that. Nino knew he had been an idiot. A huge idiot. An asshole...

“So what do you think I should do now? Go upstairs and tell him that I’m a coward who’s scared like hell that our relationship will fail?" he arched his eyebrows. “What shall I tell him - Sakurai, please give me a chance, even if we might have to attend couple’s therapy from day one? I think he wouldn’t want to start a relationship with me anymore..."

“You’re too negative," Aiba rolled his eyes. “No matter how your relationship will actually look like, you have to try and see. And for that, you have to apologize and ask him out. You still like him, don’t you?" Nino didn’t reply but for Aiba, that was answer enough. “The exhibition," the stylist then said, making Nino took at him questioningly. “The exhibition of yours and Jun’s challenge will be held on Friday night in the gallery nearby. Of course, Tacky has invited a bunch of people, among others the models of the project. He will see the end results of the pictures you took of him, he'll surely think of the things you did together and the feelings he had for you, and probably still has. And then, ask him. He won’t say no, I’m sure about it!"

If Nino’s heart hadn’t been in turmoil yet, now it definitely was. Adding hope to his misery wasn’t exactly what he needed, he just wanted to forget and overcome his crush but... what if Aiba was right? What if there was still a chance, what if he just needed to jump at it and try before giving up right from the start? Shouldn't he give it a chance?

“And what...," he started in a shaky voice. “What if he doesn’t show up?"

Aiba patted his friend’s shoulder, smiling. “He will show up. I know it!"

Nino managed a crooked smile in return and thanked Aiba before he dedicated himself to his tea again. “I’ll try...," he murmured to himself.

“Ah... could you do me a favour though?" Aiba then asked as he stood up to get inside again. “Please make up with Jun or I have a grumpy boyfriend at lunch..."

Nino chuckled. “Sure, Aiba-chan."

\- + -

Glasses were clinked, hands shaken, shoulders patted. There was laughter in the air, jazzy music in the background - not too loud thankfully - and there was even a small buffet in the biggest rooms of the gallery for the hungry quests, filled with delicious snacks and sweets. There were quite a lot of known faces, fellow photographers from all over the city, a handful of celebrities, some popular models, and whoever else could be interested in “The Big Blue Hour Showdown".

The gallery Tacky had rented was close to the photo studio and they all had been working hard the past days to arrange the exhibition of Nino and Jun’s pictures from their four different photo challenges. Now the big day - or evening - was here, on which it would be decided who of the two photographers would follow Takizawa Hideaki’s footsteps in leading and guiding the crew of the “Blue Hour" once he switched to his new studio in New York.

Nino would be lying if he said he wasn’t nervous. It wasn’t a daily event to exhibit a large number of photographs in such a way and even have to compete against one of his oldest colleagues (and friends, yes). But the biggest reason why Nino was literally a bunch of nerves, was because of that one person standing there at the buffet and trying out every single dish that could be found there.

Yes, Sakurai had accepted Tacky’s invitation to the exhibition as it seemed and even if he didn’t greet Nino yet (he was probably as embarrassed to see the photographer as the photographer was to see him), he was there among the guests and ready for the big evening.

From browsing through Tacky’s notes during a small meeting in the morning, Nino knew that Ohno, as well as Sakurai, would be specially thanked during Tacky’s speech during the ending part, then at least they would all be standing on the same stage, probably just a few meters apart. It was that what made Nino nervous as hell, but also his plan to catch Sakurai afterwards when everything was over, for a talk... to ask him for forgiveness over his idiotic behaviour and for another chance.

The photographer was still convinced that he wasn’t good with people. Even if Aiba had pointed out how great he was, working together with Sakurai during their photoshoots and even if his boss had mentioned that Nino’s work with the clients of the photo studio had improved too (well, not counting the last few weeks in which Nino had been a jerk), he couldn’t really believe it. Sakurai was wrong. Nino wasn’t cool or confident, not at all. Nino was ignorant of other people and if he wasn’t, he was insecure and self-doubting, on a level which might be ready to compete with Sakurai’s worst times, probably.

It wasn't Sakurai who needed confidence, it was Nino who needed it. He didn’t deserve the other man’s admiration, and especially not his love. He had disappointed him and hurt him. How could Aiba really think Nino would still have a chance with Sakurai?

However, right now was probably not the right time to think about all this. At least not when there was a chic old lady asking Nino to explain one of his pictures which they were standing in front of right now. Ironically it was one of the “angel pictures" he took during the supernatural shooting - one of his personal favourites.

The event was already in full swing. The doors of the exhibition were open for about three hours ago. Every visitor had received a small flyer and questionnaire at the entrance, which told them about the goal of this exhibition and gave them the choice to vote for their favourite picture. Voting would end about 11 pm, votes would be counted and then, half an hour later, Tacky would announce the winner.

Until the voting was over, the photographers were encouraged to walk through the exhibition, accompanying interested visitors to provide a few background information about their works. Of course, Jun was in his element, while Nino tried to hold back a little, too shy to interact with people he barely knew and much busier with his thoughts about Sakurai than anything else.

He crossed looks with Sakurai maybe two times, but they hadn’t approached each other yet, and each time he saw the man, Nino became more nervous, more doubtful of what would be possibly his last chance. It was driving him crazy.

Thankfully, the old lady who was hooked at Nino’s arm to have a bit more support while walking and seemed to be a big fan of his pictures, distracted the photographer’s thoughts for the last quarter-hour, before Tacky announced through the speakers that now, everyone had to put their votes into one of the small boxes that were placed all over the gallery. Then it was Keiko, Suzu, Aiba and Shige’s work to count the votes - Nino and Jun were excluded in order not to possibly manipulate any results - for the next 30 minutes.

All of the pictures had been spread throughout the gallery, sorted by the respective topics - “Work", “Outdoor", “Supernatural Humanity" and “Freedom". Yes, apparently, Tacky had interpreted clubbing as a form of freedom. Nino wouldn't actually agree with him on this point, but he could see the idea behind it, so he let it pass. Jun and Nino had to decide on a few of their favourite shots - in discussion with Tacky who gave his honest opinion on each of them and edited the respective pictures to their liking before they were printed on huge canvasses before being hung in the most suitable spaces to show them.

It was an impressive exhibition, showing the two different models in different situations. The feedback was very good, a lot of people praised the photographers, as well as the models. More than once Nino had seen Sakurai blushing when someone approached him to ask if he was that good-looking guy in the pictures. Of course, there was no fifth shooting with the topic “Home", and if Sakurai didn’t know before that Nino was lying, now he knew.

And then there it was - the moment of truth.

“Ladies and Gentlemen," Tacky greeted everyone from the stage in the centre room and guests who weren’t there yet were informed through the speakers in the other rooms to come over. “My name is Takizawa Hideaki, I’m the owner of the photo studio “Blue Hour" and I would like to take the chance to thank all of you for coming here tonight and joining us at our “Showdown"-exhibition!"

The crowd applauded.

“As written in our invitations and our informational flyers, I will soon move to New York in order to lead a branch of my studio there together with a friend. We are eager to work with a lot of new interesting people and spread our working philosophy there," more applause was heard but it ebbed quickly as people wanted to hear more. “Now we created this event, with all of your help, to make it easier for me to decide on my successor as the boss of our Tokyo branch. Thank you very much in participating in this event. Please let me introduce my two candidates now - Ninomiya Kazunari and Matsumoto Jun."

The crowd applauded again. In front of everyone was Aiba, who cheered for both - his boyfriend and his best friend - in a loud voice, embarrassing Suzu who was standing next to him. Tacky talked a bit about the two men. How they joined the photo studio years ago as some of his first apprentices, how they had been rivals and friends over time - he even dropped an embarrassing anecdote, making the two photographers cringe and the audience laugh - and then pointed to some of the closest pictures to show who took which of them.

“I also would like to make an honourable mention to our two models, Ohno Satoshi and Sakurai Sho who bore with my two men here for weeks," Tacky then said, pointing at the two men who were standing close to the stage and gesturing them to get up to show their faces. The two did, Ohno looking bored as usual and Sakurai embarrassed but with a charming smile on his face, and came to stand next to Nino and Jun. A few more words by Tacky and it was time to crown the champion.

“Thank you very much, Keiko-chan - by the way, this beauty is one of my photographers too -," the audience applauded while Keiko left the stage after handing Tacky a small envelope. “So it’s time for the results! I will now announce who of my two photographers here received more votes by you, my dear audience, and will become the next boss of our photo studio!"

“Don’t make it so thrilling, hurry!" Shige’s voice could be heard from the side of the stage and the audience laughed again.

“Slow down, my dear nephew, I’m already at it," Tacky replied chuckling and finally opened the envelop, pulling out a small piece of paper. “And the winner is... nobody!"

The audience gasped, Jun’s chin dropped and Nino frowned. Then there was silence over the room until Tacky chuckled into his microphone again.

“I’m sorry, guys, of course, this was a joke," he said, causing the audience to laugh again.

“Very funny," Jun whispered to Nino but Nino didn’t react.

“So... the real winner is...," Tacky started again, trying to make it thrilling for another time, “Ninomiya Kazunari AND Matsumoto Jun!"

The audience gasped again, Jun said “HUH?!" and Nino frowned again, sighing.

“Ah, this time, it’s not a joke," Tacky then added, turning around the piece of paper to prove it. “In fact, it’s a tie! Which means, that both of you won, congratulations!"

Now the audience cheered, falling into applause, Aiba was screaming his congratulations over everybody else’s voice and while Jun was looking kind of desperate, Nino couldn’t help but laugh behind his hand. He wasn’t particularly happy to be one of the winners (what was the point of this competition when in the end it was a tie?) but he definitely found it amusing.

For the next 20 minutes, Jun tried to talk Tacky into a re-vote or an additional challenge so that he could beat Nino and become the only boss. When Tacky threatened Jun to make Nino the only boss instead due to Jun’s uncooperative behaviour, the man shut up and went back to his boyfriend who wrapped his arms around him and congratulated him again, telling him what an amazing job he had done and how cool it was to be part of a two-guy leadership of a company. In the end, Jun was convinced that the result was not actually so bad and even offered Nino a handshake to seal the deal.

Nino would probably need a bit more time to adjust to the idea that he would really become a boss in the near future, and it made him a bit nervous, to be honest, so in fact, he was even relieved not to be the only one in this and to have Jun by his side. The two of them might have their differences, but Nino was sure, if they both pulled themselves together, they would be able to work together well.

What was left now was the thing with Sakurai... The man had been standing at the other side of the stage, so he wasn’t near Nino when the announcement was made, and now that all the guests were celebrating with the photographers, he seemed to have vanished somewhere into the crowd again... maybe getting another snack, Nino supposed. He himself had tried to back off a little into one of the room's corners, sick of all the handshakes and congratulations, a drink in hand. Orange juice, by the way.

“There you are," he heard Tacky’s voice as the man approached him. “It’s your big evening, why are you hiding from everything?"

Nino took a sip of his juice before replying. “I’m not a crowd-person, I prefer to stand here and watch."

Tacky nodded, he must know about Nino’s preferences anyway. “Are you surprised by the results?"

“That it was a tie?" Nino asked.

Tacky nodded, a grin on his lips and it was then when Nino finally suspected something to be wrong with the whole thing.

“Don’t tell the visitors, but actually... we never counted the votes."

“You manipulated the voting," Nino whispered understanding, his lips curling up into a smirk.

“To be honest - and don’t tell Jun because I think he won’t take it in a good way -," Tacky said, winking at his employee, “I made my decision to give the job to him and you already in the beginning. I think it needs both of you and I think it will do you good to have a reliable business partner. Like me and Tsubasa, you see?"

Nino chuckled amused. He felt caught, but on the other hand, he scolded himself. He should have known his boss better. “OK... I have to say, I’m not even that surprised about your decision, Boss. But why did you make us go through this whole challenge thing then... and then this big event and..."

“The event is great, and it's a good advertisement for our photo studio, isn’t it?" Nino’s boss offered with an arched eyebrow. “And my goal wasn’t to decide who of you is the better guy for the job, I wanted the two of you to challenge your weaknesses and grow while learning from those photo shoots. And I think, it worked quite well, didn’t it?"

Nino hummed in agreement while downing the rest of his orange juice and placing the empty glass on a nearby table.

Indeed, Jun had become much more patient with his clients since he had to work with Ohno, and even if Nino was still feeling awkward with people, he had become better in giving instructions. Further, the qualities of their pictures had improved too and their creativity had been awakened once more. All in all, Jun as well as Nino had become better photographers during the last few months.

“Don’t get me wrong," Tacky added. “You both did a great job with the photographs. I love all your works and I’m proud that you are my students. I can clearly see that both of you improved and have big talent."

“Thank you for your honest feedback every time after the shootings," Nino said. "It was very helpful."

“Anyway," Tacky added, drawing Nino’s attention. “There’s something more in your pictures that I could feel..."

Nino didn’t reply. His heart started beating faster.

“Correct me if I’m wrong," his boss continued, “But what I feel when looking at your pictures… is love."

Nino gulped. So his cover has been blown.

“I know how it feels to fall in love with your model through the lens of your camera. It happened to me too, once," the other man said with a warm smile on his lips. “You see a person in so many different angles when you work together for so long, and you either start getting annoyed by it, or you fall in love with that person."

Still, Nino didn’t reply but he was sure that his face was burning red now. At least, that was how he felt. Then, his boss suddenly nudged his side.

“I think he likes you too. He has this special look in his eyes..."

The young photographer chuckled bitterly. “In the beginning he said, he admired me, though I was cool and stuff... then we got closer and you’re right, he liked me... but once he got to know me… he found out what a big idiot I am. He probably can’t like someone like me anymore."

Tacky shook his head. “Don’t say that."

“I pushed him away," Nino said in a weak voice. “At the point at which he confessed to me and we even had crossed a line... I pushed him away because I got scared."

“Scared of what?"

Nervously, Nino started fumbling with the end of his necktie. “I’m not good at handling people, you know that right?" he started. “Especially not relationships. Why do you think I was single for years?" he smiled crookedly.

“People change," Tacky said, putting his hand on his employee’s shoulder.

“I’m not so sure about that, to be honest," Nino sighed.

“But look how much your model changed in such a short time," his boss said, pointing at one of the pictures hanging nearby, the one with Sakurai seemingly clinking glass with Nino’s camera, a confident and charming smile on his face, one of the pictures just before their first kiss...

“He had the potential from the beginning. He just needed to be pulled out of his misery," Nino said.

“Who says that doesn’t apply to you too? Maybe he even helped to change you as well? Maybe you’re just a step away from your new self and your stupid fear is everything that keeps you from it?"

Nino sighed again, looking at Tacky. His heart was pounding but his stupid fear was still poisoning his mind. “I wished I could be as positive as you are, Boss. But I fear, it’s too late."

“It’s not too late, Nino. He’s still looking at you with those eyes, I saw it," Tacky whispered, leaning a bit closer. “I’m convinced he still likes you. However, you should better tell him that sooner rather than later. Or the other model will snatch him away from you," the man ended his speech, chuckling.

“What?!"

That triggered something in Nino, something that he didn’t know was so prominent in his chest. That feeling of jealousy that he had experienced after the supernatural photoshoot when the painter was flirting with Sakurai, or that time when Ohno had danced so closely with the other man that Nino started feeling sick about it.

“What is Ohno doing?!"

Nino’s boss chuckled again. “I saw him flirting with Sakurai just before at the buffet. So go and save him."

The young photographer didn’t hesitate any longer and after straightening his clothes and thanking his boss, he went off in the direction of the buffet. Indeed, he found Sakurai standing there, and Ohno was there too but thank god, the two of them weren’t flirting (since they were both too busy grabbing the last few servings of everything).

However, his reaction to Tacky’s comment had shown Nino once more, how deeply involved he was, emotionally he was still into the whole thing. He wouldn't be able to forget Sakurai. He wanted him. He wanted him for himself. And Tacky, as well as Aiba, were right. Maybe, Nino had changed. Or at least had the potential to change. Maybe this time, things would go well, who knew? He had to try to find out. Try and not give up from the very beginning.

Nino could feel his nervous heartbeat in his chest, but it couldn’t be helped. He took a deep breath before taking the last few steps to approach Sakurai. He could do it!

“Hey," Nino said, cursing at himself at the creaky tone of his voice. Wow, what a way to approach someone you want to ask for a date.

“Hey," Sakurai replied, looking just a little less awkward than Nino felt right now. “Uhm. Congratulations on…," the man continued, lifting his glass of champagne for a small toast. Yeah, on what? Nino didn’t actually win or did he? “Your promotion," the man chose his words, wisely.

“Ah, thanks," Nino rubbed his nose with his fingers, a bit embarrassed. “It’s all thanks to you, you know?"

“No, don’t say that. It’s your talent that brought you so far," Sakurai, blushing slightly, chuckled and his lips curled up in that shy cute smile of him but he sounded bitter and his eyes didn’t shine like usual.

Nino had missed it, that smile, his quick heartbeat told him.

“Do you have a minute for me, maybe?" the photographer asked.

He pointed at the exit of the room into another, a quieter room. He needed a bit time with Sakurai alone or he would die if he had to tell him what he intended to say in front of all those people.

“Sure," Sakurai replied after a second of hesitation, placed his plate onto a table to come back to later, probably, and followed Nino.

Ironically, they had ended up in the room with the “Outdoor" topic, Nino’s personal favourite. He turned around to face Sakurai.

“So, how are you doing recently?"

Sakurai tilted his head. “Fine, fine," he said after a short while of hesitation. “My new-found confidence makes it a bit easier for me at work. That’s thanks to you."

Nino slightly shook his head.

“On the personal side though," Sakurai continued and the photographer couldn’t help but feel guilty. “I don’t know. I was dumped after all; it might take a bit to recover from that..."

Now, Nino’s heart was beating like crazy. Did this mean that he might actually still have a chance? Or was Sakurai just bitter about the rejection?

“Are you… do you –," Nino really didn’t know how to say it, cursing his inability to communicate his thoughts properly to other people. “There’s something I have to tell you," he eventually said.

Sakurai arched a sceptical eyebrow but he didn’t say anything, seemingly waiting for Nino to continue, who couldn’t help but feel like the world’s biggest idiot – which he probably was. Nino had never been good in admitting his own mistakes and he had always been bad at apologizing too, so this situation was a true challenge for him. But he needed to take it. He wanted to take it. He took another deep breath, trying to figure out a way to say what he wanted Sakurai to know.

“You know, Camelot really likes you. He says, he misses you...," Nino said, contradicting everything that his thoughts had laid him out to say, but at least he wasn’t gawking at the man in front of him any longer, with awkward silence between them. Now, it was only awkward.

Sakurai snorted amused. This time, he sounded a bit more sincere, a bit less bitter. “Oh does he?"

“Well… to be honest, not only Camelot," Nino picked up on the glint of hope he saw sparkling in the conversation between them. He tried to pull off a nonchalant shrug. “Sally wanted me to text you but I was a stubborn idiot and didn’t have the courage, for example..."

“I’m sorry, Sally was who?" Sakurai asked, frowning a little.

“My cell phone," Nino stated bluntly.

“Ah," the other man replied. “Makes sense... And... does someone else miss me?" he then asked, the hint of a smirk slowly showing at the corner of his lips that he tried to hide by taking a sip from his drink. “Reynard, perhaps?"

Nino smirked half-heartedly, shrugging slightly to continue his faked nonchalance. “Among others?"

“So tell me who else," Sakurai replied, challenging, and Nino’s heart stopped beating for a second.

“I," Nino simply said, directly, his voice probably only a whisper. “I miss you... A lot..."

Sakurai stared at him for a few seconds. “...Really?"

“You remember when I told you my secret of being confident during the early days when we just met?" Nino asked.

Sakurai nodded. “I do. You said that you’re being confident because you don’t care about what people think of you."

“Exactly," the photographer confirmed. “To be honest, it’s still like that. I don’t care about what most people think of me. But…"

“But?"

“There is a specific person that I might truly care about what that person thinks of me…," Nino admitted, averting his eyes.

“Is that so?" Sakurai asked in a low voice.

“That person is you," Nino said, honestly, locking eyes with Sakurai and taking a step closer towards him.

“Are you getting carried away by the situation again?" Sakurai said, earnestly, some bitterness shining through his voice and Nino knew that it was his fault that the other felt hurt at that very moment.

“No! No," the photographer shook his head. “I’m not. And I swear, I only drank orange juice today! Let me finish, please!"

Sakurai crossed his arms but agreed. “OK, go on."

So now was Nino’s chance to fix things. His last chance, probably. He didn’t want to ruin it - again. He took a deep breath.

“I got scared when I realized that I care about what you think of me. I got scared when you told me you like me because I thought if you get to know me better you will find out that I’m not as cool or confident as you think I am and that I’m weird and not easy in a relationship... that you might stop liking me and change your mind and-"

“Nino, stop," Sakurai said, lifting his hand.

“But I-," Nino wanted to protest desperately. But wait, did Sakurai call him “Nino" again right now?

“You think I can simply stop liking you?" Sakurai asked, frowning. “Why will you think that could happen? Do you think I didn’t think about the whole thing before I told you that I like you and would be interested in a relationship with you? You’ve always been honest with me, you told me from the beginning that you’re not the cool guy I might think you are, but I don’t care. Maybe, I found it a bit quirky that you like giving inanimate objects names and occasionally talk to them as if they are your friends, but I don’t care. Maybe I even find it cute?"

“You…," Nino blushed helplessly.

“It’s fine. It’s totally fine for me, really! If you’re a little weird like that, I will love that about you. And what else do you have to hide?" Sakurai waited as if he wanted to give Nino the chance to chime in, and even if Nino didn’t really know what to say, he used the chance.

"I-I lied to you!" Nino dropped, internally hitting himself. He should have probably chosen a better way to tell Sakurai the truth, but, he just had to let it out somehow. When the other arched a questioning eyebrow, the photographer continued. "The fifth photo shoot, the one in my apartment, it wasn't real..."

Sakurai sighed. "Well, seeing the pictures of today... I figured that it wasn't real. Why did you lie to me?"

"Because I wanted to talk to you about the kiss... tell you that I remembered, but didn't know how," Nino admitted, his look dropped to the floor. "That's how big of an idiot I am. I couldn't just talk to you normally like every other person, I had to make up this lie and it was still you who started the topic then. I completely failed... I'm sorry... I'm probably the biggest weirdo on earth." And then he didn't know what else he could say. There was so much on his mind, but he just couldn't find the right words...

“I’m not that naïve, Nino," Sakurai then replied. "I know that nobody is perfect, but for me, that’s perfectly fine. Everyone has their quirks, strong and weak points. I’m the best example for that. You’ve seen how weak I was and still can be, how shy, how clumsy… but that’s me."

"If someone is weak here, it's me," the photographer said. "I'm really sorry I lied to you."

"I can accept every weakness that you might come with," Sakurai answered. "Just don't do it again, OK?"

Nino shook his head, heavily. "Never!"

"What about you? Can you accept me the way I am?" the other man asked. "I don’t want you to toy with me again, I do have feelings, you know?"

“I’m really sorry that I pushed you away when you confessed. I’m serious!" Nino finally blurted out. “I regret it every single day, Sho-chan, and believe me, I like you! A lot! Even back then… that night that we spent together… even back then, I liked you but I couldn’t tell you. I’ve been a coward, I tried to protect myself but I hurt you and I’m truly sorry for that... and for my lie about the photo shoot... I think you are adorable. Even when you’re clumsy or shy, or when you are not so shy any longer, I also do not care. I promise I will accept you the way you are if you do the same with me."

Sakurai stared at Nino in disbelief. “Y-You…," the stammered.

“Did I say something strange?" Nino was close to panic and he wasn’t sure how to interpret the surprised look in Sakurai’s eyes.

“You called me Sho-chan," the other replied, perplexed.

Confused, Nino frowned. “Eh? Yeah, I did…"

“You gave me a nickname," Sakurai said under his breath.

Nino blushed even more. “Well…"

“You’re serious, aren't you? You only give nicknames to things you intend to keep, right?" Sakurai chuckled, causing the other to blush even deeper.

“I never said you are a thing, though!"

Sakurai took a deep breath. “What I want to say is… yes, I still do like you. More than that."

The man stepped a bit closer, and the more the distance between him and Nino was shrinking, the more Nino’s heartbeat was speeding up.

“If… if there is just the tiniest little chance that you still like me, do you think you could give me a second chance?" Nino whispered to Sakurai, who was close enough now that a whisper was loud enough for him to be heard. “I don’t know if it will work out but -"

“Shhh," Sakurai just said, letting his arms sneak around Nino’s waist. “We can figure things out later," he whispered, before closing the last bit of distance between them.

Nino was in heaven when he felt Sakurai’s lips on his again, it literally felt like how he would imagine being kissed by an angel would be like. Of course, as Nino’s inner voice joking said, Sakurai is your own secret angel after all.

Smirking despite himself, the photographer allowed himself to completely dive into the kiss, letting all of his emotions break out. He lifted his arms to hook them around Sakurai's neck, pulling him closer, kissing him again and again, never ever wanting to stop again and the other man didn't seem to have anything against that, thankfully.

They were still kissing when the party was almost over and the other photographers seemed to have started searching for them. It was when Nino heard Aiba’s delighted “Oooh look, they made up!" that he broke the kiss with Sakurai and the two of them faced the group of others with blushing cheeks. Of course, Jun couldn’t help but make a lame comment as always, but Nino didn’t really care. Between him and Sakurai, the two of them had linked their hands, Nino was pressing Sakurai’s hand slightly as they exchanged a look, to show him that he intended to continue from where they were just interrupted, later on. When he turned to face Sakurai, the man flashed him his most beautiful smile, which Nino returned with a light and warm heart.

\- + -

About two years later, Nino could finally say, that he had gotten used to his new position in the “Blue Hour". It had taken him and Jun quite a few months to work out a business plan that worked for both of them and didn’t result in Nino wanting to poison Jun while the other plotted to push his colleague into the river on a pitch-black night.

Jun might have expected that it would be easy for him to push Nino back from the boss job to take over the studio alone, but he didn’t plan on Nino’s new-found confidence and competitiveness, which definitely didn’t only surprise him, but also everyone else - including Nino himself. But the photographer didn’t want Tacky’s decision to go to waste, the man had decided that he AND Jun should become the new bosses, and so it should be.

The photographer just came back from a long meeting with his business partner which was prolonged even more when Aiba brought along three cups of coffee and the three guys discussed some plans for the studio together until Nino’s look fell onto the clock hanging up on the wall. He jumped up like crazy, promising Jun to talk about the rest in the morning meeting the next day.

“I’m back!" Nino yelled when he entered his apartment, exchanging his shoes for a pair of black fluffy slippers that Aiba gave him as a present last Christmas.

He put his sneakers into the shoe cabinet right next to fine pair of black leather shoes - which didn’t belong to him.

“There you are!" a familiar voice welcomed him when he entered the living room. “We’ve been waiting for you!" the man sitting on the couch said, pointing at the gaming console that he was using at the moment.

“Sorry for being late," Nino said and leaned down to peck his boyfriend’s cheek. "How was your presentation today?" he asked, remembering, how nervous his boyfriend had been in the morning, as he was about to present a new business plan at work.

“Welcome home!" the other replied with a wide smile before turning his head and pecking Nino’s lips in return. "The presentation went well, I didn't make as many mistakes as expected and in fact, everyone appreciated the idea and my brother promised to consider it seriously. It might become a new project, soon."

"That's amazing!" Nino flashed him a smile. "I'm so proud of you!"

The photographer then earned the most beautiful smile on earth from his boyfriend and finally came around to take a seat next to him. He placed a plastic bag filled with take-out dishes from the nearby Chinese restaurant.

“You’re a hero! I’m starving," his boyfriend said, reaching for the bag immediately and starting to spread the different boxes before handing Nino a pair of chopsticks. “Good that I didn’t start cooking already," the man chuckled.

Nino laughed as he reached for one of the boxes. “Better that way, Sho-chan!"

“I’m digging in!"

THE END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to my special guests:  
> Elijah the elevator. Camelot the camera. Conny the coffee machine. Sally the cellphone, Haruka the houseplant, Wanda the waterlily, Reynard the refrigerator and every other inanimate object I forgot to name. ;)
> 
> And of course, thanks to all my original readers and comment writers over at lj/dw! Your comments have always encouraged me!

**Author's Note:**

> Reposting this from my lj/dw. Originally written in 2016 on request by the lovely Juju (jtaytt) with the keyword "blossom" for my Spring ficlet challenge 2016 and the wish for something based on "My Fair Lady". 
> 
> My dear Juju, I have to admit I never watched "My Fair Lady" and only looked up the plot on the net, but I tried to grasp the concept and adapt it with my idea – somehow. Probably, it's a bit far from the original, but I hope you enjoy it nevertheless.
> 
> Thank you for beta-reading this, Juju and Wendy! Love you girls! <3


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